Gold Hoop Beaded Earrings | Jewelry 101

We are going to do a demo, or I am anyway, of these earrings. So this, this is for all of you guys that are looking for something different to do with your Supplemax. I was specifically looking for something different to use it for, where I could kind of combine my love of wire wrapping with the Supplemax. These are kind of fun little earrings. I just started with little hoops that I make all the time. I usually just make them plain, but this time I just decided that I would go ahead and use the Supplemax to add beads to the outside. Cool thing about Supplemax is what? That's right. It's invisible. So you don't see it. It's actually wrapped around that inside gold piece, but you don't see it because it is clear. And I figured out a way to not have to knot the Supplemax at all. So on one of them, you'll see there's some little knots. I believe it's this one right here with some glue. And on the other one, there's absolutely no knotting at all, which I think is kind of fun. So I will show you guys how I did that here today. All right, but I want to start from the very beginning with this. So you guys can actually see how to make this. So from the very beginning. So I'm going to start here with a little bit of 16 gauge wire. You can see I've got it a teardrop shape. I just work right off of the spool of the 16 gauge wire. And I'm just going to cut myself a small segment. You don't need a lot, just a few inches of that 16 gauge. And I am using jeweler's brass. I didn't have any jeweler's brass left. So I put some 16 gauge silver wire because you don't have to worry about whether the wire is plated or not on this. You're likely going to hammer it, but you don't have to hammer it so much that it's going to lose its color. So I just put some silver plated. I also put some, let's see, some silver plated 20 gauge and some silver plated 18, 20 and 22 gauge in there. So you can use 18 gauge. I would recommend going ever so slightly smaller, but you don't have to with that set. All right. To do this the way I do this, I use my ring mandrel. By the way, I use my ring mandrel for most anything that I'm going to do that's a hoop or a teardrop shape. So you're just going to come all the way up to the size 15. As far as you can on that ring mandrel and you're going to bring the wire, you want to press up against the bottom of the ring mandrel so the bottom stays nice and rounded and then just bring that around. Just like so until you have a nice teardrop shape like that. And I think that one's a little bit bigger than I've been making. Let me see that. That one. Yes, it's a little bit bigger. So I probably if you want to make it a little smaller, you just kind of pull just a little bit tighter and that will tighten up your little teardrop just a little bit more. So the key is obviously to make them all about the same size. The closer to the same size this part is, the closer to the same size your little finished earrings will be. Now, what you're going to do next is you are going to let me grab two pliers I have over here that I like. I love my tweezers. So next, you're going to take the bottom one. I like to pull it up from the bottom and just fold it over. The other one. So I just see that little fold I just made there. Let me see if I can turn it so you guys can see what I did. It's that little fold just like that. And you're just going to kind of squeeze that in a little bit. Now, you don't want to cut it too long because we just want to have just a little bit of the wire to wrap around that other wire. So if you don't ever want to use Supplemax, this is still a good demo because this is a really easy little teardrop shape hooped earring. So see, I just cut it just about, I would say, maybe an eighth of an inch. Around there. And then you're just going to use any plier you have, any flat nose plier. I personally like to use my tweezer nose to kind of get that in there just to close that up and around that other wire. And I usually tuck it in a little bit, too. And that was a little bit longer that I like to make it. But you just want to tuck that in just a little bit. So it just kind of finishes that off. Then you are going to cut this one at about three eighths of an inch. So that's a pretty common measurement that you hear in jewelry making. Three eighths of an inch. I'll cut that off. And voila. Then you're going to grab your round nose plier. And I like to use a round nose to do this because you don't really you want to make sure you get that right into a nice, cute little loop. And if you start with one that's like a six step bail shaping plier, that's only one size and you don't have any graduation. If you get a little bit off, it's kind of difficult to fix that. Whereas with the round nose, if I start rolling and I realize, oh, my gosh, that's too big of a loop, then I can kind of start over a little smaller. Or if I get a little bit too small, I can go the other direction. But look at that. For some reason, that one turned out perfect. Awesome. I like it when that happens. All right. So the next step is pretty important when you're using supplemax, because what you don't want to have happen is you don't want your supplemax to just slip back and forth all around the place. You don't want your beads slipping back and forth. So I take these and I give them a little bit of a hammer. Now, you don't have to go crazy with it. Like I said, if you're not using jeweler's brass, if you're using plated, you want to be quite delicate with this. But if you're doing the jeweler's brass, I want to give it a decent flattening, nothing super crazy, but just enough so that the beads will have a little grab. Just like so. And I actually did it on both sides. Then the other thing I did with this is I actually filed this a little bit. Now, if you're using plated metal, I do not recommend filing it because filing it obviously is going to take off some of the metal. But filing it kind of roughs it up a little bit. I was going to see if I had a file back here. I think I do. It takes off just a little bit of the metal and but it also roughs it up so that your jeweler's brass doesn't go or you're sorry, your beads don't kind of flip around too much. So let me just grab these files. So if you have any file, it can be any kind of file, a nail file, anything like that. But this is going to give your wire a little bit of a grab. So I'm just kind of taking this and just giving it a little scratchiness on there. And I know you guys probably think that's pretty weird, but I'm a pretty weird person. So I'm just doing things to make my jewelry better. Whether or not you like the look of it, this is something that you can learn from for your future, because when the beads slip around too much, this this little pattern doesn't kind of want to stay where you put it. So that gave all that Supplemax a little bit of a grab so that those beads stay where I put them. And that's why I did that. OK, so next up, what we're what we're aiming for in this, you can see I've got this one about three quarters of the way finished. What we're aiming for is to kind of get to this spot. But I've got to start somewhere. So I'm going to start with and this is a little bit of a longer demonstration. I hope you guys are OK with that. I just thought you might want to see a cool way to use this Supplemax. So I'm going to pull off about three and a half feet of this one, two, three. And the initial part is super annoying because when this is a little bit longer, it's kind of annoying to work with. But I found that adding wire, adding Supplemax is way more annoying than starting with a long piece of Supplemax. So I started with a long piece of Supplemax, because like I said, I'm not doing any any knotting on this. And so since I'm not doing any knotting, I have to start with a longer piece. So and if I started with a shorter piece, then I would definitely have to string beads through and or do other knotting. And I don't want to do any of that. So. OK, so what we're going to do is put the lid back on this crazy little contraption here and pop them over there with my earrings. So you're going to take about the last, I'd say, six inches and just fold this over. And this is part of why I wear black. So you guys can actually see things like this. So you can see I've got about six inches folded over. Here's the end. Looks like that. And here's the other end. You can see that longer piece of wire coming through and that shorter piece of Supplemax not coming through. So the first thing you're going to do is you're going to take the one that you hammered and roughed up and you're going to go through the center. So I've gone through the center. There's my little loop. And I've got that on one side. I'm going to put my fingers in that loop and I'm going to pull the other two. Make sure I'm still in the center here. I'm going to pull the other two through, creating a little just a hitch knot. I think it's called, of course, all of a sudden, I can't think of the name of that knot. But anyway, I'm just going to pull that through just like so. So I've got that little half hitch knot right on there. And that's what's going to hold this in place. Now, what's the hard part about getting this started? Well, this first little bit of cord here is doubled over. So I have to use two pieces for the first little way that I'm going. So I'm going to grab a pink mother of pearl bead. Now, all the things that I'm using today, including the Supplemax, are available. The mother of pearl I'm getting ready to pick up is also available. All right, so we started with pink, the light pink. There's a lot of really good colors in here. I really just like this light pink. The only thing I notice is that some of these beads, every once in a while, it's like every, I don't know, 20th bead or so, will just have kind of a funny hole. And I would just recommend using those on a different project. The ones that have more straight holes are going to be easier for you to work with. So pop that on there. Now I am using, and these are also available, these little 18 karat gold over stainless steel round beads. I'm using the four millimeter. So my first two beads that I'm going to string on there are going to be those two beads. First, the mother of pearl and then the 18 karat gold over stainless steel. I'm going to come all the way through and I'm going to get down here to where that other shorter cord is. And then I'm going to go over, or not over, but I'm going to go through that mother of pearl and through that 18 karat gold over stainless steel bead. So now both of those beads are on both of the cords. You see both of them there? It's kind of hard to see, but there you go. You can see both of them. Now, the next step is to come down. I was actually to add one more bead. Sorry, this is the very first one. So I'm going to add one more bead. So my second color is going to be the blue. So I'm going to come to the end of this, grab one of my little blue beads. And I'm going to come all the way down. And once again, when I get down to that spot where I have two together, you do want to go ahead and make sure that those both cords go through this blue bead. So get them down, find the other cord, slip it through. And these have plenty of large holes to do this. So that little guy is on two pieces. And that's what, it's really important to get the two, this, these first few beads, because what you're doing is securing that cord. Now you're going to take both of them and you can do this either way. You can go under the little loop and push it through, or you can go over and push it through the other way. I found it easier to go under and pull all that cord through the hoop. So I pulled it through the center of the hoop and then I'm going to take the short one first and go back through just the last bead I put on, which was the blue bead. And this is why I said, this is the hardest part because you've got to get through that with two pieces of this cord. Don't go through your gold bead, just through the blue, pull that little short one in and then find the end of your long one. This is why I said, this is kind of funny because you got to get to the end of that long bead and then you're going to take that one and also go through that blue bead and then you pull both of them through the, obviously the short one's going to come be a lot faster than the long one. So I'm going to pull this in tight and it will just kind of, it kind of goes crazy for just a little bit, but then once you get to the right spot, once you pull the end of this, watch what's going to happen. I'm just going to turn it towards the screen here. Pull that tight, pull that tight and see what happened. They just lined up like little soldiers. Oh my gosh. So amazing. So, um, I would recommend doing it with the two cords a couple more, at least one more time. So we're going to do this again. We're going to add one. So after this, everything is exactly the same except for the two cords. I'm going to add one gold bead. I'm going to go to my next color, which is the yellow. I'm going to add that on and that's all you add on. Hardest part is the stringing them. So those two beads, add those on, come down to where the two cords are together. So remember we're still doing one more segment with two through this, because without knotting this, you want to make sure you weave the cord in a few times so that you don't have to worry about it coming back undone while somebody's wearing them, because that would be super annoying. Nobody wants that. So both cords through that. And I just, for some reason can't get this one through this yellow bead, but it will here, it'll go through here in just a second. There we go. Like that. And now remember what we do. I'm going to go under the hoop, under it and up through the center and pull all the cord back through. Then I'm going to take the short one, this little shorty first, and go back up through the yellow guy. She sits confidently, pull that and then grab the longer one. You got to get all the way to the end of it. Remember it was three and a half feet long. All the way to that end. And then take him and go through this little yellow bead just like so. So he came through and then once again, you're going to pull the short one in first and then the longer and just keep on pulling, keep on pulling. I know it doesn't seem like it's going to work, but you just keep pulling until you get there. And once again, he just kind of stands up at attention. Now you've got this little piece of cord sticking out. I don't feel like you have to go any farther with that. You can trim it off now if you want to, or you can leave it till later. It's up to you. I'm just going to trim it just a little bit shorter just so I don't get mixed up and try to use it. But that little guy, that's as far as you go with that cord at the beginning. Just those three, just like that. And now I'm just working with one cord from now on. So the next one is going to be the red. And so I will put on first, you got to put on the gold bead. Don't forget your gold bead first. And then you put on the red bead that is next. So just two beads like, so bring them all the way down to your hoop. There's your hoop. Go under the little hoop, come through like this through the center and then find the end, the hardest part is finding the end, and then go back through that little red bead. And this is going to be very satisfying. Guys, just wait. Once I go through the red bead, the hardest part is getting it through the bead. Get that through. Now watch this. I'm just going to pull on it and all that cord is going to come through. So pull, pull, pull, pull, pull. Let it kind of untangle. Pull, pull, pull, pull, pull. Keep pulling, keep pulling, keep pulling. And bam, it lines right up. Push them in place, pull it tight, and ta-da, it's pretty easy. Not hard. It doesn't have to be perfect either. Don't feel like you have to make perfect little lines, but they look pretty good once you keep going. So that's the way you keep going. I've got a pattern. That is my four bead pattern. And those four beads are about to be the last four beads on the other side of this one as well. So once you get around to this point, you're only going to have about 12 inches of cord remaining when you get to this point, maybe a little bit less than that. But this is kind of the most satisfying part because you're just finishing it up. So after the red one, you're going to do a gold. So just pretend like I went all the way around. A gold, a pink, P-A-N-K, these mother of pearl beads actually have fairly large holes. That's how I'm able to get four of them on. So this is what it looks like every single time. You're just going to add two beads every time, one gold bead. And they need to be round, a little round. I like these little gold ones because I think they add that pop of metal. They have to be round. Otherwise, it just doesn't quite work. The irregular shapes are large. All these different beads just aren't going to work. These little round beads were perfect. All right, now I'm going to go back through that pink bead. So I'm basically just making a little loop around the earring or the hoop finding that I made every single time and then pulling it tight. And I just pulled my cord right back out because I was talking at the same time. So I'm going underneath and around that guy, finding the end of the cord and then pushing it back through that pink bead like so. Once again, I want you guys to see this. So I'm going to turn this this direction so it's up against my black shirt. See how it's coming out of that pink bead? And then you're just going to pull on that cord. And then I'm just going to kind of get my little hands out of the way so you can see this kind of just cinch into place. Like so it just cinches, it's really easy. So I've got the pink one. Next one is going to be adding a gold bead. Then after the pink comes the blue. So pink, gold bead, blue bead. And when I first started this, I was kind of being really particular about what beads I picked, like which was one was a little bit longer, one was a little bit shorter. And then I just realized they all kind of even out as you go through this. So I didn't really worry about it after that. Now I'm going to go through this pull. On the end and then I'll pull it up so you guys can see. I'm just going to pull, pull, pull, pull, pull and cinch it into place just like so. Isn't that fun? I think it's so fun. OK, next we're going to grab another gold bead. This also works with wire. I've done this with wire as well. It just seems it works better with the Supplemax. It's harder to string that wire back through. And it's also harder to kind of cinch it up. This cord just is so beautiful. And, you know, wire will also blend in, but I think the cord blends in so much more beautifully. So two beads, once again, got those two beads. This time we've got the gold and the yellow. Go under your hoop. So I'm going under the hoop and then I'm pulling that through the center like so and then going back through that one bead, just the orange bead, not the gold bead. You go through the gold bead, all bets are off. Things are going to just get all messed up. So push that through. And I'm using the .012 Supplemax, I don't know if I said that when I first started, but I'm using the .012, which is the medium size of the Supplemax. I found that was the easiest to do this with. All right, one more bead. That's going to be one more gold bead and then the final bead is going to be red. And the reason it's my final bead is mostly because I'm trying to match the other one. So we're going to go one more. And then so you've got those last two beads on there and you're going to go under the hoop through the center and then you're going to go through that last red bead. And I found if you try to hold the Supplemax too far away from where you're pushing it through, it actually kind of makes it a little bit harder. So just go and hold it pretty close to, let me see what just happened here, got kind of around, there we go, pull that tight, just like so. All right, so that's my final bead on the piece. Just pull that up together. Now, what you want to do here is you want to actually finish this off the same way you started it and the way you started it, of course, was going through those beads several times. So what you're going to do is the only time you ever go through a gold bead twice is this time right now. You're going to go back through that gold bead, just one of them, and that can be a little difficult because they try to, they kind of try to like want to be working together. So this little cord wants to go through the next one, too. But you only want to go through one and pull that through like so, like that. And then I'm going to go back down through that yellow bead. And so what we're doing now is we're just weaving the cord back into the piece. That's that's the trick that I had. So I've got to find the little hole in this bead and it's going to be easier for me to do if I'm looking at what I'm doing and not looking at the camera. So I'm going to pay attention to that for just a second. And you guys probably won't be able to see what I'm doing, but I'm going back down through that yellow bead with this cord. I think I need my outlight. Yeah, with the camera on me, I'm trying, I'm having a little bit of a hard time doing it. I'm pushing my bead in the wrong direction. So let's just kind of pull this a little tighter, push that out. I see you, you little crazy hole. Got to get it back through there. So if you go too far away, there it goes. Then you're going to push that through. And then can you guys see it kind of coming? I think if we go up against my black shirt, you'll be able to see that coming through the center. And then I'm going to pull that guy down like this. And so now I've gone back through that. And then this time, this is this is tricky. You're going to go around that. And now you've got to go back up through that yellow bead. Oh, oh, no. Back up through the yellow bead. And that it will take the cord four times. You just have to kind of finagle it through there. So next I'm going to go back through the yellow bead, back through this gold bead, back through this blue bead right here. So I'm going to go back through all three of these beads. They all have the wire or the cord coming through them two times. And that way you will actually kind of finish this off so you don't have to do any knotting. The other choice would be to kind of come back through and then go back through that red one again. And you can do that as well. It's really just whatever whatever floats your boat. But you want to go back through at least three of the beads in that way. And then you'll have this little piece kind of sticking out like this little guy. And you do not need to glue that. You just need to clip that off right up against that bead so that nobody sees it ever again. And then that's how you finish off the earrings. And one thing I did do is, can you see how that little red bead is kind of like flipping out like this? I actually popped just a little bit of glue underneath that very last one. So it didn't keep flipping like that. So anyway, hope that you all like that idea. I think they turned out super cute. So much stuff going on around here. So little time. I'll see you guys again real soon.