Tutorial Tuesday

Tutorial Tuesday is a blog series where I share a do-it-yourself jewelry tutorial on Soft Flex Company’s blog.

With this design, I wanted an earring that I can wear to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day! This is project is easy, fast and great for a beginning beaders. Only skill required is crimping. For crimping help, please visit Soft Flex Company’s webpage, All about Crimps.

Cut Soft Flex Beading Wire into two 8″ lengths, one for each earring.  String Celtic style bead, then crimp tube. Take the other end of the wire make a circle back through the crimp tube for your first loop. Now using the tail that went through the crimp for the loop, string your beads for the second loop. Alternate 1 green fire polish bead and 1 silver spacer tube until you have 6 green fire polish beads and 5 spacer tubes. Then take the tail and feed it through the crimp tube again making your second loop.

Now take the longer wire tail and feed it through the crimp tube in the opposite direction making a small loop at the top. This little loop will attach to your ear wire. Adjust wires until you are happy with size of all three loops. When ready, use your Mighty Crimping Pliers to close the crimp tube.You use the Mighty Crimping Pliers just like the Regular Crimping Pliers. For crimping instructions, click here.

Finally, trim off the excess wire close to the crimp and use your chain nose pliers to attach you ear wire to the top loop. Make your second earring the same way. When making the second earring pay attention to the loop sizes of all three loops before crimping.

Tutorial Tuesday is a blog series where I share a do-it-yourself jewelry tutorial on Soft Flex Company’s blog.

I bought a few Samunnat polymer clay beads beads while in Tucson this year. I love the bold, geometric patterns. Have you heard of these beads? Not only are they beautiful they  have a beautiful story. Samunnat is a non-profit organization which assists Nepalese women who are affected by domestic violence. Each bead is a gift, and a story of one woman’s life and made by a woman’s hands in Nepal.

With this design, I wanted to create an earring that celebrates the bright, colorful culture of Nepal. This is project is easy, fast and great for a beginning beaders. Only skill required is crimping. For crimping help, please visit Soft Flex Company’s webpage, All about Crimps.

Cut Soft Flex Beading Wire into two 8″ lengths, one for each earring.  Place a bead stopper on one end of one of the wire lengths. String crimp tube, alternate seed bead and silver bead until you have 6 seed beads strung, string Samunnat Bead, alternate seed bead and silver bead until you have 6 seed beads strung, string crimp tube.

Carefully remove the bead stopper and loop each wire end around and down through the crimp tube on the opposite side to create the circle shape. Adjust wires until you are happy with circle size and shape. Reattach the bead stopper to the two wires to hold the shape.

Using your crimping pliers, crimp one side of the earring as close to the seed bead as possible. You may use the regular crimping plier  or Universal Magical Crimper to secure the crimp. I choose to use the Universal Magical Crimper as it makes a small 2mm bead out of the tube. For regular crimping instructions, click here. For magical crimper instructions, click here.

Repeat crimping on the opposite side. Trim off excess wire as close to the crimp as possible.  Attach your ear wire to the beading wire. Repeat steps for the second earring.