Easy DIY Style: Stone Bead Earrings
With little more than a few basic tools and some inexpensive beads and hardware, it’s simple to create a jewelry store’s worth of earrings. Whether you prefer dangling and delicate or beaded and bold, each pair takes mere minutes — and has style to spare.
Ear Supply
Our earrings require just beads, pins, earring wires, and jump rings (small wire circles) — but combine for dozens of different looks. Here, all the supplies you need to perk up your ears:
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+ Beads
Your choice of bead will determine how the earring is made: Some beads have vertical channels all the way through (as with 1, 2, 6, 13, and 14) and require a pin. Others have holes only through the top (3–5, 9, and 12) and call for jump rings. Small beads (7 and 11) and sequins (10 and 15) can be stacked on a pin or strung on a jump ring.
+ Pins
We used pins with ball heads (16), paddle ends (17), and flathead ends (18). While a bead will sit flush against a flathead pin, ball heads are visible, and paddle ends protrude enough to add visual interest to the earring. (Indeed, they’re pretty enough to dangle, unadorned, in a group.) Order the 2-inch size and snip to the desired length.
+ Earring Wires
The ends of these wires have small loops. Some of the loops (19 and 22–25) can be closed with pliers and can be threaded with a pin directly, but others (20 and 21) require a jump ring. Of course, the shape of the wire will affect the look of the finished earring: More dramatic versions (19 and 20) make for longer, bolder earrings.
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Pins How-to
Materials:
Bead or beads
Pin
Wire cutters
Round-nose pliers
1. Slide bead (or beads) onto pin. With wire cutters, cut pin so only about 1/4 inch extends past bead or beads.
2. With round-nose pliers, pinch end of pin and, in one continuous motion, curl it around end of pliers; tuck end into bead hole.
Add to jump ring or earring wire.
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Jump Rings How-to
Materials:
2 pairs pliers
Jump ring
Bead or earring pin
1. With pliers, grip either side of opening of jump ring. Pull one pair of pliers toward you and push the other away.
2. Slide on bead, or thread head of pin onto jump ring (make sure bead is facing the right direction). Use pliers to close jump ring.
Add to earring wire.
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