Handcrafted Jewelry: "Simple Hearts" Wire Earrings

With wire-working skills, a creative jewelry artist can bring to life beautiful, whimsical or even funky-artsy earrings. You can become quite skillful with wire by learning a few techniques and playing with the wire until you become comfortable enough to feel in control and let your imagination carry you away.

As some people prefer to begin with simple techniques, I have written step-by-step instructions to create this pair. All you need are basic tools, pliers, cutters and round-nosed pliers to transform wire into a pair of "Simple Heart" earrings.

Materials:

For the wire in this project, you may use Sterling Silver, Copper, Gold-filled or whatever wire you prefer. You will need:

-12 inches of 18 gauge wire

-1 pair or ear-wires

Cut Your wire

-2- 4 inch 18 gauge pieces for the heart shape.

-4- 1 inch 18 gauge lengths for figure 8 connectors

Create the component parts from your wire-

-Form four figure 8s from the 4 smaller pieces of wire. Using a pair of round-nosed pliers with a smooth, rotating wrist motion, grasp the tip of one end and turn a loop. Form a second loop in the opposite direction at the other end. The pieces should look like number eights (8). (See Picture #1)
Hammer your figure 8s to retain their shape.

-Form Two twisted figure eights

On two of your figure 8s rotate a loop so the loops face right angles to each other. Do this using two pairs of pliers, one to hold onto one loop, the other to twist the other loop into place. (See Picture #2)

-Create Heart Shapes-

-Use a felt tip pen to mark your 4 inch wire pieces at the half point.

-Fold the wire into a V at this point.

-Make a loop at the top of each end of your V.

-Use round-nosed pliers to curl the loops to the inside. (See Pictures #3 & 4)

-Continue coiling each loop, loosely, until you've created a heart shape. Coil with either a pair of flat pliers or insert your round nosed pliers into the loop you've created and use a rolling wrist motion to create the coil.

-Use flat pliers to taper the bottom slightly.

-Use your fingers to rearrange the coil pattern to make it even.

-Hammer the heart shape to retain its shape. (See Picture #5)

Finish your earrings-

Create a connection between the two sides of each heart. Open up one side of the figure 8, loop it through one side of the heart, then close it. Do the same with the other side. (See Picture #6)

Open one side of your bent figure eight and loop it through the middle of your heart. This will be the connection you use to dangle them from the ear-wires. (See Picture # 7)

Dangle your earrings from the ear-wires of your choice.