Today I am so excited to share with you the earrings that I made last summer for a beautiful bride. A friend that I have known since the FIFTH grade contacted me on Facebook and told me that she was getting married and wondered if I would make jewelry for herself and her wedding party because she had seen my posts about my jewelry shop, Bombshell Bling Jewelry. (Check it out!) Ummm…YES, PLEASE! I love the simple crystal and pearl jewelry that we talked about and designed together, and I will be teaching you how to make the bridesmaid necklaces another day. But, as for today, I am going to show you just how I made these Crystal & Pearl Bridal Earrings.
Before we talk about these bridal earrings in more depth, let’s take a look at the amazing blog hop that I have put together for you today! I have rounded up some of my favorite bloggers and we have all designed some seriously fun bling for you! Hop on over to each of their blogs to check out how they made their jewelry. I love how each piece has such a different feel and style, as well as covering a wide range of jewelry making skill levels. There is a little something for everyone! This is perfect for holiday gift giving! People love receiving handmade jewelry as gifts. Believe me, I know. 😉 And GUESS WHAT?!?! At the end of this post there is an awesome giveaway of ELEVEN handmade jewelry items that we have joined together to give to one lucky winner! You will either be getting the ultimate new jewelry wardrobe, or you will have all of your holiday gift shopping done with one lucky click of a mouse! SCORE! Scroll to the bottom to enter!
Be sure to check out all of the amazing tutorials for these jewelry pieces on these fabulous blogs: Flamingo Toes, Bombshell Bling, eat.sleep.MAKE., Crazy Little Projects, and The Scrap Shoppe.
Now, back to the earrings. I usually refer to these earrings as my “grape cluster earrings.” I have made them in many different varieties, including all silver and champagne crystals, which a friend that I have known since seventh grade actually wore for her wedding. Apparently these are popular earrings amongst Colorado brides! 🙂 I have made them in a variety of crystal combinations, and I also made myself a huge pair using paper beads that were hand-rolled in Uganda. Pretty rad, right? They are outrageously huge and heavy, so I can’t wear them for long because my ears are a little funny that way after years and years of MASSIVE earring wearing, but I always get compliments on them when I make the sacrifice for beauty. As my mother told me when I got my ears pierced at the age of eight, “Beauty is pain, my dear.” Hahaha. I think the reason that I remember that so vividly is because it was so oddly out of character for her. She was the goofiest women I have ever know, completely devoid of vanity, and totally comfortable in her own skin, dorky clothes, decades old hairdo and all! Funny the things that we remember, isn’t it?
You may also have put together that these are similar to the Ombre Earrings Tutorial that I shared a few weeks ago.
Second verse, same as the first! I love this design. Once I started making them I just kept on keeping on. They are not difficult, but they are definitely a bit time consuming, so buckle up, peeps, and let’s get started.
Here is what you will need to complete this tutorial:
* 20 6mm clear Swarovski Crystals
* 20 4mm (ish) white freshwater pearls
* 2 10mm (ish) white freshwater pearls
* two earring prongs
* a small amount of chain
* 42 eyepins
* round-nosed pliers
* wire snips/cutters
* flat-nosed pliers
(You can find all of those basic tools in a kit at any large craft store.)
Prepare your chain. I used very small chain and cut two pieces that were each eleven links long, since I had twenty one beads per earring and I intended to attach two beads to each individual link, plus one at the bottom of each earrings. Begin by using your flat-nosed pliers to gently pull open the loop on your earring prong. Thread it through a chain link, as shown, and then use your flat-nosed pliers to gently reposition the loop on your earring prong to be closed once more. Repeat with the second earring prong.
Prepare your beads by putting them each onto an eyepin.
Use your round nosed pliers to gently bend the eyepin to the side near the base of the bead, as shown above.
Now wrap the eyepin wire back around the round-nosed pliers until it has created a full loop. Leave it open—do not twist it shut yet!
Starting with the large pearl at the bottom, thread the eyepin through the chain link, as shown above.
Now I usually use my round-nosed pliers to gently grip the loop in place, as shown above, and with my other hand I use the flat-nosed pliers to grip the end of the eyepin wire and twist it around the base of the eyepin wire a couple of times, therefore locking in the bead, as shown below.
Now snip off the excess wire end.
Now your big, “anchor” pearl is attached. Time to move on to the smaller clustered pearls and crystals above.
Beginning at the bottom (on the link just above the link that you just used for your anchor pearl) attach a small pearl on one side and a small crystal on the other side using this same process, as shown below.
Repeat this process over and over until you reach the top. THIS IS KEY! If you want this to be full and have the crystals and pearls evenly distributed then you need to carefully place them and plan. On one side of the link is a pearl, and on the other side of the link is the crystal. On the link just BELOW that link it should be reversed. The crystal will be UNDER the pearl and so on and so forth. You will “get” it once you start and see what I mean.
All done! See? Not all that technically challenging, but definitely time consuming. However, I think the results are worth it, don’t you?
Let’s take a look at them in action, shall we? All of the wedding photography was done by Emily Elizabeth Photography.
Doesn’t she just radiate happiness?? I love that dress, too! So stunning! A beautiful bride and a beautiful moment in time. I am so grateful that I got to participate in her special day in this way!
Now on to the giveaway!! I am soooo excited about this! One lucky winner will win all eleven of these pieces of handmade jewelry! Amazing! So so perfect for the holiday season, for both wearing to parties and for gift giving purposes! The three pairs of earrings were donated by yours truly. They are items from my Etsy shop, Bombshell Bling Jewelry. Three of the items (the pom pom necklace and the two bracelets) are the items you can find tutorials for on The Scrap Shoppe, Crazy Little Projects, and eat.sleep.MAKE. The three stunning necklaces and two rings are from the one and only Bev at Flamingo Toes. No offense to the other ladies in this blog hop, all of whom I love and admire greatly, but Bev is my favorite jewelry designing blogger. That girl is unreal. She blows me away!!
Use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter. The winner must be 18 years of age or old, and this contest is open to US Residents only due to shipping costs this time of year. I apologize for any disappointment that may cause. The winner will be contacted by Tuesday, December 3rd. If the winner does not respond within 48 hours to my email then a new winner will be drawn. Winning entries will be verified, so be honest about following along with us!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
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Beautiful earrings, Sarah! I wish I had ones like this when I got married.
These earrings are beautiful! I’ve made many a cluster earrings before – the great thing is that it will look different with every different type of bead you use! And I love the “beauty is pain” saying – my mom told that to me when I got my ears peirced in first grade too!!! hahah 🙂
I love these earrings so much Sarah!! They are gorgeous! Such a great technique too – you could definitely change it up with all sorts of colors and beads!!
What a great tutorial! I’m just getting into jewelry making, and this is the kind of post that I need!
Fab giveaway, too!
Beautiful earrings!! Thanks for the tutorial!!
These are gorgeous!!!
WOW love these earrings. They look store bought–I wish I could make jewelry like you. I still haven’t gotten the hang of it!
Thanks, Katie!!
Hi!!
Love it. I made mine with head pins instead of the eye pins do that you don’t have that loop on the bottom.
I did it! I followed the tutorial and made it all the way. Phew! That was one journey. It took a great deal of concentration to finish off with this. It took me a couple of tries in the beginning but I ended up doing pretty well actually.
YAY!!!!!!!
I can’t wait to make these, THANK YOU SO MUCH, for sharing…!!!
I seen the picture’s of the earrings and
they seem real easy I will try it.
Thanks
Thank you so much for linking at #overthemoon! I look forward to seeing what you share every week. Please come back for #WonderfulWednesday or #ThursdayFavoriteThings. Enjoy your week ahead.
These earrings are stunning! I’d want to wear them everyday. Thanks for sharing at the Monday Funday Party. – Emily