Faux Antique Crystal Chandelier Earrings

Faux Antique Crystal Chandelier Earrings -
Perhaps my most favorite hand-made earring!

I was inspired to make these earrings when I found the brass finding. The finding comes in several metals (silver, gold and brass). I thought the brass would look the prettiest.

The colors were chosen to match a shirt I had bought earlier that day. My goal is to have earrings to match every outfit in my closet. I love these crystal beads! They come in so many colors and are so sparkly and beautiful.

Here is how I made these earrings using the Basic Loop technique taught in my Wire 1 tutorial.

Required Techniques

• Wire 1 - Basic Loop Tutorial

Tools

• needle-nose pliers
• chain-nose pliers
• side cutters

Material List

Supplies pictured for making one earring
(minus duplicate beads and headpins)

• 2 each brass chandelier findings - The number of crystal beads listed below are based on 3 loops on my finding. Adjust below quantities based on your finding.
• 6 each 6mm Indian Red Crystal Beads in a diamond shape (center drilled)
• 6 each 6mm Colorado Crystal Beads in a tear drop shape (center drilled)
• 2 each 4mm Colorado Crystal Beads in a diamond shape (center drilled)
• 8 each 3" long brass headpins, 22 gauge
• 2 each brass earwires

It is important to get center drilled beads in order to use the basic loop technique.  The wire wrapped loop is learned in the Wire 2 Class, which I will be blogging about soon.

Beadworld only has dead soft brass wire in bulk, which is too soft for our purpose (half hard is recommended). I decided to purchase a couple extra headpins and just cut off the head. I only purchased 8, but you may want to purchase some extras depending on how conservative you can be in salvaging the scrap metal.

From this point forward, I am going to assume that you have read my Wire 1 - Basic Loop tutorial. This article teaches you how to make the basic loop, which is required to make a beaded headpin and double-beaded eyepin.

Steps

• Step 1: With the 6 tear drop shaped beads, make a beaded headpin with the head being on the fatter end and the eye on the skinnier end. Keep the excess material from the headpin to use for step 2 below.
  
• Step 2: With the 6 diamond shaped beads, make a double beaded eyepin. Before cutting the tail off the eyepins, string one end through the eye of the tear drop shaped beaded headpin from step 1 and string the other end through one of the bottom loops of the finding.
  
• Step 3: With the 2 smaller diamond shaped beads, make two double beaded eyepins. Most likely the eyes will need to be perpendicular to each other. See the larger picture below. I used a headpin with the head part ignored/cut off. Before cutting off the excess tails, string one end to the top loop of the finding and the other end to the earhook loop.

Done!

I love this earring and have gotten so many compliments on it. I had bought a rust red shirt with ivory lace. The beads on this earring match so perfectly.

This project has inspired two new projects. I plan on making a crystal chandelier necklace to match these earrings. Secondly, I plan to make a second crystal chandelier earring with silver metal and light blue and teal crystals. I have a blue shirt and a teal shirt that need some matching earrings, so my goal is to match one bead to one shirt and the other bead to the second shirt. I will post pictures and instructions for both of theses projects later.

My one annoyance with this earring is the earwire. I found that it is not shaped correctly and slips out of my ear. Luckily, I have recently taken the earwire class and can now make my own earwires! I'll be posting a tutorial soon.  I used two 3" brass headpins to make my own earwire.  Now they are perfect!  Pictures above still show the old earwire.

Inspirational Projects

The key is to find a finding that inspires you.  The below projects have slight variations, but using the basic loop and a center drilled bead, you can make them too!

Autumn Leaves - Similar to my earring, this one takes a finding and adds crystal beads to the ends.

Brazen Brass Earrings  - The side beads use the basic loop, while the middle bead is attached with an open jump ring. It could have been attached with the wire wrapped loop.

Crystal Twist - The picture shows a wire wrapped connection, but you can simply substitute the basic loop.

Don't forget to also check out my Pinterest page for more inspiration!

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