Earring Styles - or - Excuse me - but my ears are ringing

Let's talk about earrings! or ear rings - as you prefer. Earrings are fun and quick to make - you can easily make up pairs to go with every mood, outfit, holiday, day of the week, etc. Even before I made jewelry - I could easily go more than a month without repeating a pair.

Of course, the findings are what make an earring work. A necklace or bracelet is mostly about the content - the beads or whathaveyou - and the clasp is a nice finishing touch. But with earrings - the findings - the mechanical bits, if you will - set the tone of the earring. Dangley, drippy vs stud, etc.

Here's a review of earrings findings.

The simplist of all are "Shepherd's Hooks" or "Fish Hook" style earrings - which is - to put not too fine a point on it - a piece of bent wire. In fact - you can buy a nifty little tool - a jig and bending device - that allows you to crank out your own earwires by the score!





The downside to this very, very simple finding is that they can fall out of your ears and you lose the earring. Either they slide forward and slide out, or they snag in clothing and are pulled out. So a more secure option, but nearly as simple, is the "Kidney Wire" - which adds a little hook to catch the back of the earring in, to close it up and become a loop. Usually delicate and light - they don't add much to the weight of the overall piece.

However - these little plastic stoppers are designed to slip over the end of the shepherd hook or fish hook style, and stop them from sliding out - so they are an attractive option too.


The more substantial "Leverback" - in both a roundy style and an elongated style are much more secure to wear - and eliminate the little hook that can snag on clothing, hair, etc. The more round-in-profile style is often referred to as Euro-style. Leverbacks are generally more substantially made - they have moving parts, and so are a more expensive finding to make. They can be a little more awkward to get into your ear as well. But they are very secure in terms of staying there, and they don't snag on things.

These all have in common that they have a loop at the front for hanging the decorative part of the earring off - so they are used for "dangly" style earrings. The leverbacks often have some decorative element too - from a simple ball or a little fan shaped wedge of metal, to make them look less utilitarian.

Stud or Post style earrings make for a more minimalist design - if desired. You need to pair these up with a "back" - to slip over the back to retain them. This is usually a "butterfly" back - or nut - that slips over the earring to keep it in place.

The wider, flatter style - also known as a "clutch" - has a built-in disk to make the earring back wider. The wider style is good for heavier earrings - as it spreads the weight and pressure out over a larger area - making the earring more comfortable - or changing the exquisite pain into a dull ache - as the case may be - depending on just how heavy you made them!



Studs can also be a flat disk for gluing an item onto. This is especially good for those who don't want a long, dangly earring.


Those who never conquered their fear of having needles stuck in them and didn't get their ears pierced need not feel left out. (OK - I'm being a bit flippant about that - there are lots of good reasons for wearing clip-ons and/or not having holes poked in your body.) Clip-on earrings still need to walk the fine line of design by not being too heavy, as a clip-on with enough strength to keep a heavy earring on can be excruciatingly uncomfortable. (Guys - you have no idea the suffering women do in the name of fashion. )

Clip-ons come in a surprising number of styles, actually. They can be light and airy, with a simple loop for hanging. Or a more decorative style.

Or they can be a speciality finding - like a perforated disk - for wiring small beads to.





Chandelier is a term used for particularly large, ornate, drippy style of earrings - much like a chandelier light fixture. These findings can be hung from almost any style of earring that has a loop - from shepherd's hooks to leverbacks to clip-ons, and are hung with small beads or crystals. Be careful not to get carried away and make them too heavy!


Hoop earrings are a simple style that are more oriented for viewing from the side - excellent with pulled up hairstyles, and they won't widen the look of the face visually the same way a wide, chandelier style might.

That pretty much wraps up earrings. Because earrings need to remain light - so that they are comfortable and wearable, and they seldom get the hard knocks that bracelets do - you can attach the beads that you use with a "simple loop" as opposed to a "wrapped loop."

And one final thought - you know you are a beader when ... you make a pair of earring to go with your outfit for tonight's evening out while your significant other is in the shower. On a regular basis. ;-)

Dangly Earrings: Using up the Leftover

Some of the best stuff starts as a way to use up left-overs. Think jambalya, trifle, quilts. Well - these dramatic earrings started as a way to use up leftover ends of beading wire, and turned into earrings in their own right!

You'll need some smallish beads - crystals or what-have-you - leftovers are good here too, those left-over ends from when you cut off the Softflex or whatever beading wire you are using. We are going to be folding them in half - so 8 inch pieces will give us 4 inch earrings. If you want to make them shorter, you can trim, or use shorter pieces. And some crimps. Base metal crimps are ok here - you are just going to flatten, not roll them! (I did use sterling crimp tubes - 'cause that's what I had handy - but you could save some money with silvertone base metal crimps beads.) And a pair of earwires. And two sterling crimp tubes - as they are bigger than the base metal crimps.

• So - pieces of beading wire - 3 per earring
  
• 2 sterling crimp tubes (bigger)
• more crimps
• beads
• pair earwires.

To get all these dangly wires attached to the ear wires in a tidy way - we are going to start with the longest scrap, fold it in half, and slide the earwire onto it and to the centre.













Next, poke both ends through a bead -











and slide the bead up to the earwire. This will be your loop.


















Now - grab two more pieces of beading wire, fold them in half, and poke the ends through the bigger crimp - the sterling crimp tube.













And now take the two ends from the one you already threaded onto the earwire, and stuff them in there too - you should have a bundle of 3 pairs, 6 ends - sticking out of the crimp tube - and that's about all you can get in there!






Slide the crimp tube up towards the top, being careful not to pull the wires out of the crimp tube.














We're getting close here now.

















I find that in order to prevent from pulling they wires out while doing the final lining up - it is prudent to put something through the loops temporarily to prevent them pulling out of the tube. I used the other earwire, as it was handy - a piece of wire or a needle works too.
















Nice and neat! Slide out your aligning wire and ...






















And crimp that baby!

Now you have 6 sassy wires to string some beads on!


















Slide your beads on, I tend to go for random order ...




















Leave a gap of an inch or so, add a crimp, and squash it. That's where the beads will be - they will sit on top of the crimp when the earring is being worn.















Two beads together look nice too.



















When you get to the end of a strand, add a crimp, and a bead, ...













and double back up through the crimp.













Squash and trim. I do this because the ends of the wires are scratchy and irritate my neck - so I prefer a nice smooth loop instead.












Carry on and do the rest of the strands.
















Stagger the clusters of beads - so they don't all wind up in the same places.









Voila! Now make another!





And there you have it. I, of course, make them ridiculously long - so you might want to make them a little shorter!

Earrings as the Main Course - Earrings for Earrings Sake vs Earrings as an Afterthought

A friend confided to me the other day that she was really stumped when it came to earring design. "I can't seem to get away from the oval bead on a headpin thing," she admitted.

I thought about this for awhile - and decided that:

a) earrings fall into two categories - the little coloured accents made out of leftovers from a necklace or bracelet OR

earrings made for their own sake,

and

b) I pretty much suck at them too.

Further thought brought me to the conclusion that point a is probably over-simplifying - but I think you get the idea - or will by the time you get to the end of this post.

So - I decided to have a look at what I've made for earrings - and it's a pretty pitiful collection. These dragon earrings are my faves - and I wear them a LOT. Even though they violate what I think of as being essential to earrings - they are different, but the same. I think earrings that have a distinct pattern should be mirror images. (Earrings should be the same, mirror images, or completely different, IMHO) And, they have no pattern on the back - and given that earrings twist and flop about - I think that earrings should be interesting (at least) or the same on the back.

The reality is - these are just two dragon pendants (small) that I stuck on ear wires. I really like them, for themselves - cuz I have a thing for dragons, in case you hadn't been paying attention. ;-) Our charms section has lots of stuff that works as earrings - buy two - add earwires - bingo!


But I also make lampwork beads, and keep trying to incorporate them into earrings - which is a challenge - as I make huge beads. One of the major constraints with making earrings is making them light enough to wear - a big problem for me, as my designs are large and over the top. Five pound earrings just aren't going to cut it unless you are into pain and self-mutilation. Admittedly - that is a potential target audience, but still ... . ;-)

This particular combo of decorative headpin and bead cap works particularly well for lampwork spacers, and I use it a lot.

That would be these and these,

• Sterling Findings - Headpins - 2.75 inch Headpins - Large Victorian Fan - Sterling (1)
• Sterling Bead Cap - 12 mm Bar Star - Sterling (1)

if they are in stock. They go out of stock quickly - so when you see 'em, snap 'em up.

There are lots of other bead cap and decorative headpin combo's that work too, so if it's lampwork spacers you are making into earrings - that's pretty easy. These beads are pretty plain, but there are certainly lampwork-bead-making artists out there making wonderful intricate and SMALL beads that would make great earrings. (I'm just not one of them!)

So - then I thought I would fire up the wayback machine - so to speak - and go have dig through my not inconsiderable jewelry collection - and see what was in there for old favorites. None of these are made by me.

I used to wear these a lot - these are carved wood (I think!) Moths - made by LizzyBugs. These are lightweight and surprisingly flattering. Hmm - there's another consideration for earrings. They are next to your face - so whether they are flattering is probably a bigger consideration than for, say, bracelets.




I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that I loved these and wore them a lot. See the close ups of the back and beads if you are curious as to the actual construction. Seedbeads and glue and a peacock feather. They've held up surprisingly well over the years.

















Then I found these - hoo boy! Aren't they fabulous!?!!! Can you wear them for more than an hour? Nooo! (They are clip-ons - and have tiny little labels on the back: "left" and "right." How cute is that? They are exceedingly heavy and uncomfortable. There was a time when I suffered exquisitely painful earrings - but those days are gone!

Which brought me to these fabulous babies - lizards that appear to be gnawing on your earlobes! These are LAR - Lunch at the Ritz - and I have adored their jewelry for years. These are actually surprisingly wearable - being very lightweight. I had forgotten about these - maybe I should take them out for a spin again!

And these final pair of hammered silver. These are unremarkable by themselves - but I used to load on all my silver jewelery - and these would be the earrings that went with all that "stuff."

So here are some thoughts on earring designs.

If they are statements unto themselves - go crazy - but remember - they have to be really fabulous in order for someone to put up with being in pain to wear them - so think lightweight. Polymer clay, wood, ivory substitute, bone, resin instead of glass, stone, for instance. Hollow designs. Lightweight wires (earrings don't need a lot of strength.)

If they are accents - and maybe earrings are more often used as accents to coordinate with an outfit, match the colour of your eyes or draw attention to a long, slender neck, etc. - then they can be fairly plain and still be effective. Maybe the oval bead on a head pin is not really so bad?

I'm sure lots of you think I have missed the point entirely - so fire away with your comments. ;-)