Hearts of Purple Glass - Earring Tutorial

I am a big fan of Blondie - but I doubt these earring would be in keeping with Debbie Harry's punk style.

If your a fan of the jewelry of the art nouveau period then you may find that this project is a good introduction for wire wrapping techniques.  Wire wrapping allows you to create fluid and curved shapes, like these upside down hearts.

That is not to say of course that you could not also make geometric shapes or use sharper line to achieve a more edgy look.

You could use a wire jig to fashion metal shapes but I am all about using as little equipment as possible, so I shaped these using pliers.You may wish to try other means of shaping your wire. For example you may want to try shaping your wire around an object - you could use a jar for a circle, or a ruler for a rectangle.  If you want to create more fluid shapes, I recommend drawing the pattern you want onto a piece of paper, and then using your pliers to shape the wire over the drawing.  This proves to be a useful technique for crafting more complicated shapes, such as letters or words.  You can make something truly individual and unique by shaping wire - from a message of love to a heartbeat. It takes a little practice but it is something anyone can do.

I have designed this tutorial to introduce some very basic wire wrapping and wrapping of beads.  You will need:

1. about 50 cm of 24 gauge wire;
2. two focal beads; and 
3. two earring hooks. 

The only tools I used were round nose pliers and wire cutters. 

If you are ready to begin or just want to take a look, the video tutorial is below.

Happy wrapping!

Don't forget, if you want to see any particular projects, send me an email and I will do my best to make one for you.