How to Make Wire Wrapped Components for the Desert Shores Earrings

	Artistic Wire, Silver Plated Craft Wire 18 Gauge Thick, Tarnish Resistant Silver (4 Yard Spool) SKU: WCR-1830 $6.99
	Artistic Wire, Silver Plated Craft Wire 24 Gauge Thick, Tarnish Resistant Silver (10 Yard Spool) SKU: WCR-2430 $7.49
	Gemstone Beads, Turquoise, Stabilized Round 6mm, Blue Chalk (15.5 Inch Strand) SKU: SPTU-06 $2.39
	Eurotool Nylon Jaw Pliers Chain Nose- For Scratch-Free Wire Work SKU: XTL-0074 $14.49
	The Beadsmith Jeweller's Micro Pliers Chain Nose Flat Nose SKU: XTL-5511 $8.45
	The Beadsmith Jewelry Fine Round Nose Micro Pliers SKU: XTL-5514 $8.49
	Wubbers Bail Making Jewelry Pliers - Large 7mm & 9mm Size SKU: XTL-0032 $29.99
	Sharp Flush Cutter Pliers - For Cutting Beading Wire (1 Piece) SKU: XTL-5600 $23.99
	Beadalon Large Beading Mats - Prevent Bead Rolling 13 X 18 Inch (Set of 2) SKU: XTL-9935 $6.75

Note: This audio transcript is auto-generated and may not be completely accurate.
Hi this is Megan with Beadaholique.com and today I'm going to show you how to make these wire wrapped gemstone earring components. This is for the desert shores earring and you can find the step-by-step instructions on how to make the whole earring under the free beading projects section on Beadaholique.com So this is what the completed earring looks like and these are the two components that I'm gonna teach you how to make in this video If you have watched my video on how to make wire wrapped gemstone set the one that uses the impression jasper and the copper wire this is the same basic unit that you make in that one if you watched that one, you're familiar, you'll have a leg up on it for this one and this one is very slightly different so we're gonna need some wire. I have eighteen gauge and twenty-four gauge silver plated non-tarnish craft wire and I have some turquoise beads I have a 10mm bead and I believe that's a 6mm and then we need Wubbers bail making pliers and I have the large size here I need nylon jaw pliers almost anytime you're working with craft wire you'll need your nylon pliers and your flush cutters I have round nose pliers and I have a pair of regular chain nose pliers. You want to be careful when you're working with the craft where the chain nose pliers can ding up the metal but it's also sometimes a lot easier to get a nice firm grip with these than it is with these. So sometimes you can carefully use these to better effect so to start and going to you to chose a bead one of the larger and one of the smaller beads you can do this with any size beads that you want as long as you can find something cylindrical to use to make the first curve I'm going to use the bail making pliers but if you want to use a different size bead, if you can find something cylindrical that will match the size of your bead you can go ahead and use that instead so if you had a larger bead and you had a dowel or something that was a similar diameter to the diameter of the bead you could use that So next I'm going to cut a couple of lengths of my eighteen gauge wire go ahead and better safe than sorry cut yourself about six or seven inches cut two pieces that's one for each component you wanna straightening out your wire so use your round nose pliers to put a little bent loop at the end and use the nylon pliers to straighten your wire You always want to start with your wire nice and straight with no kinks and no bends it'll make it a lot easier to get a nice smooth finish on your piece and then once your wire is smooth go ahead and clip off the loop When your cutting thick wire the ends can fly so always wear eye protection or hold on to the end just be really careful okay so now I'm going to make this link first so I'm going to take one of my pieces of wire and then take my bail making pliers and use the larger side and this is actually I think about a millimeter smaller than my bead and that's ok it will be snug but it will stretch out to fit, so you just need to have something similar bend the two sides of your wire up you're going to pinch in towards the center with your thumb and your forefinger to try to get a nice teardrop shape should look like that you're going to cut piece of twenty-four gauge wire the twenty-four gauge wire you can actually get pretty straight with your fingers unless it's really kinked up and then you will want to go ahead and straighten out put this wire through the hole on your bead place the bead into the opening on the teardrop but like I said this is a little slightly bit larger so it will open out at the end that's fine you can bend it back close later hold the bead in place inside the wire frame take one side of the twenty-four gauge wire and wrap it around the edge of the frame get that nice and tight and then go on to the other side and let that one just hold your place and your bead might move around it might go crooked in there and that's ok you can just adjust it, just put it back straight so that it's right perpendicular from the top pieces that are going out okay now you're going to wrap both sides around a few more times I'll have about three or four wraps. I wanna make sure that it's nice and secure you can use your nylon jaw pliers to pull on the end of your wire and tighten that up and then you can very gently used chain nose pliers to bring the coils together tightly so wrap-around there or four times, make sure it's holding securely straighten out your bead you're gonna wanna take the last piece of wire to the back and use your flush cutters to cut off the extra right in the middle so that the edge of the wire can lay flat against the back and not show on the front and this is one place where I prefer to use the chain nose pliers to the nylon jaw. I feel like I can get this tighter but do be gentle so that you don't ding up your wire and take the chain nose pliers and just make sure that the end of you're wires pushed flat down all the way to the back and then you can see this sits forward of the wire frame you can just push it back a little bit center it up and you're going to take the opening here that's opened up a little and close it backed up and you want to use your side of your fore finger and your thumb to get that teardrop shape back so that the ends go parallel and right next to each other to the end cut yourself another piece of twenty-four gauge wire when you're gonna use this wire for wrapping cut yourself six inch pieces at a time if that it's easy for you to work with, if you need it longer to work with you'll have a little bit more to throw away at the end but whatever's going to make it a neater product for you would be what I would recommend so if you find it more comfortable to work with a longer piece go ahead and cut a piece now I'm going to wrap around the top of my tear drop shape and I want my wrappings to stay right towards the place where they open up wrap that about four times nice and securely and it is gonna feel like it moves around a little bit pull it tight bend the ends out and that is going to help secure that just make sure that the wires are going to stay in place then you're okay trim off your ends at the back take your chain nose pliers squish that down flatten it and it's gonna make it more secure now you're going to trim the ends You want to give about an inch from the top of your wire wrapping and you want to be sure that you using the the flat side of your flush cutters towards your piece so you get a nice flat cut on the wire make sure that the wires have a little bit of a gap in between them you can gently bend them out if you need to grab the very end of the wire towards the tip of your round nose pliers and as you turn moved down the wire so that you get a gradual spiral instead of it and a complete circle bend that down flip it over do the same thing with the other side so that is going to be how you do the bottom component for this earring and then we're gonna just the top component start with your other piece of wire and your round nose pliers and pinch the center of the wire between the round nose pliers just a bit from the base of the pliers, do this loop at the top used to hang the earring bend down crossed your ends over and go ahead and make that loop then you're gonna take the smaller side of your large bail making pliers and you can't squish this like you did with the other time obviously because it flattens that loop or so hold the pliers hold your piece and just go ahead and bend it without closing them then you can move it over to the side to get the same kind of closing that you had with the tear drop shape on the other one using the side of your forefinger and thumb You want a shape like that and then you're going to do the same thing that you did with the other component to anchor your bead take a piece of 24 gauge wire go through the bead hold it on in place right there on you wireframe just like we did with the other one you're going to wrap around the side on the other side you want to wrap around about three times. This one is smaller, you don't have a lot of room but you do want to get a few solid wraps around there to hold it in place move your wraps back to the center bring them in line trim off the back make sure they're where you want them before you tighten them they'll be harder to move once you do and then again you're gonna just make sure that that centered when you look at it from the side bring your ends together wrap this just like you did in this other piece here make sure that your sides don't get twisted like that make sure that they lay flat next to each other side by side get a few good wraps around trim your access at the back make sure that that's nice and tight and the ends are flat you're going to trim this again about an inch from the end of your wrapping and just like the other one use your round nose pliers to bend the ends into a spiral there's your second component you can see the bulk of what is involved in these earrings you also need to watch a video on how to use the Wubber bail making pliers to make jump rings or use another method to make jump rings to connect your two components and then and we also have a video on how to make wire hook earrings which is how you're gonna make the earring hook or you can buy an earring hook and use that too that is how you make the components that go into those earrings