Wednesday, July 25, 2012

EASY EARRINGS WITH SPARKLE FLOWER HEAD PINS

During the past week I've been asked on Etsy what to do with my head pin flowers.  I got such a wonderful response from my customers.  I have to admit I was very proud of myself.  I have two processes when I work.  One, I think of some sort of jewelry concept and then I sit at the torch and try to create what I envision.  Second, I sit at the torch and magic happens and I have no idea what to do with it other than, its pretty, I love it, I'll make it work!  Well the second was the process in which these were created.  I sat down today with a pair of orange/red flowers I made yesterday and started to play with the wire that comes with the head pin.  I lampworked these on 20 ga. copper wire so why not make the ear hook out of the wire that's already attached to the glass.  Here's how to make these.



1.  Use a needle nose pliers and curve the wire attached to the flower upward.
2.  Attach the leaf head pin right on the inside curve of the flower wire and
start to wrap around the flower wire.
3. String a little glass bead and continued to wire up the head pin.
4. With a cheap plain pen, curve the top of the wire.
5. Hammer the curve at least 6-7 times.
6. Cut the end of the ear hook around the area of the leaf/flower curve and file the ends.
I left it long because the weight of the glass pushes it forward in your ear.
You don't want them to fall off.
7. Hammer the rest of the ear hook 2-3 times to strengthen the ear hook.
8. If you like, antique earrings with liver of sulfer and polish them with steel wool (0000).

ALL DONE!

Here's an idea of the size they turn out.

Enjoy your day,

Raida

2 comments:

  1. Those are beautiful! They would also make great pendants using this method!

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  2. Thanks for such details how-to-it tips! I'm sure i'm gonna try it and would be back with feedback.

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