Your first pair of earrings, both from scratch

Your First Pair of Earrings, Both From Scratch

Okay. This is the one where you actually make a pair of earrings, start to finish, no cage from a previous lesson to lean on, no pendant already half built. Just you, some wire, two little stones or beads if you're using them, and the ear wires you made last time.

I want to say up front, this lesson is where it all comes together, and it should feel a little different from the pendant work. Pendants sit still and let you fuss over them. Earrings are small and fast and a little unforgiving, because you're doing everything twice, and by the time you get to the second one your hands have already forgotten what the first one felt like.

So let's slow down and go through it.

What you need in front of you

• Copper wire, 20 gauge for the frame, 24 gauge if you're doing any wrapping detail. Copper, not silver. I say this every time and I'll keep saying it. Silver is for later, once you've wasted enough copper that your hands know what they're doing without you narrating it to yourself.
• Two small stones, beads, or charms. They do not need to match. More on that in a second.
• Round-nose pliers (the good ones, if you only spent real money on one tool, this was the one), chain-nose pliers, flush cutters.
• Your two finished ear wires from last lesson.

Step one: decide what you're actually building

Before you touch wire, look at your two stones side by side. This is where I'll say something that some of you already know is coming, because I've said it in passing before. I don't love matched sets. Everybody wants two earrings that are identical, like they came off an assembly line, and I understand the instinct, but I think two earrings that are close and not twins look more like something a person made. Which it is. Your hands are not a machine and they're not going to produce the same wrap twice, and honestly, once they're both hanging off your ears six inches apart, nobody is holding them up next to each other under a light comparing loop placement. I promise you.

So don't panic if earring two comes out a little different than earring one. That's not a failure. That's just the record of you making it twice in one sitting.

Step two: build the first one, slow

Cut your wire. For a simple wrapped loop with a small stone or bead, I'd start around three inches, you can always trim more off but you can't add it back.

1. Thread your bead or stone onto the wire if it has a hole. If it's a stone that needs a wrap instead, do a small version of the cage or wrap you already know from the pendant work, just scaled down. Same principles, smaller wire, smaller everything.
2. Make your bend just above the bead, a clean right angle, using your chain-nose pliers to get the crisp corner.
3. Grip the wire just past the bend with your round-nose pliers and roll it into a loop. This is the same loop you practiced for your ear wires. Same motion, same hands, you already know this part.
4. Wrap the tail down around the stem two or three times, snug, and trim close with your flush cutters.

That's earring one. Set it down. Look at it. It doesn't have to be perfect, it has to be finished, and there's a difference between those two things that I think matters more than people expect going in.

Step three: build the second one, and let it be a little different

Same steps, second stone. Your loop might sit slightly higher or lower than the first one's did. Your wraps might be a little tighter this time because your hands warmed up, or a little looser because you're rushing to catch up with yourself. That's fine. That's what I mean about matched sets. Close is good. Identical is a machine's job, not yours.

Step four: attach the ear wires

Open the loop on your ear wire gently with chain-nose pliers, a twist, not a pry, hook it through the loop on your earring, and close it back up the same way you opened it. Do this for both. Check that they both open and close smoothly, nothing pinching, nothing snagged on itself.

Try them on. Actually put them on, in the mirror if there's one in the room, because seeing them hang the way they'll actually hang tells you things a flat table never will.

I think about this every time I get to the last stretch of a class like this one. Years back I found a Woodruff ancestor in some family records who left almost nothing behind, just a name and two dates and nothing in between them, no letters, no photo, nothing anyone remembered to write down. I made a small wrapped piece for that person anyway, even though I had no idea what they'd have liked, no color they favored, no story to work from. I didn't tell anybody why for a while, it felt strange to explain. But there's something about making a thing for someone you'll never know anything about that makes you pay closer attention to the people you're making things for now, the ones sitting right in front of you who can actually tell you what they think.

Your earrings tonight don't need that kind of weight behind them. Sometimes a stone is just a stone you liked the color of. That's plenty of reason.

Before next time

Wear your earrings around the house for a couple of days before you decide how you feel about them. Fit and balance show up differently once you've had them on a while, not just under classroom light.