It’s been a while since I last posted a tutorial, in fact it’s been a while since I was able to spend some time crafting! Sometimes life just gets in the way of doing the things we love!
But anyway, today I have another tutorial for you on how to make wire jewellery. This is a heart component for earrings or as a pendant.
It’s very versatile and you could make a larger version of it as a decorative heart for hanging on doors or walls at home.
This project has been made using gold coloured wire, topaz Swarovski bicone beads and turquoise lined seed beads.
For this project you’ll need the following:
- Jewellery wire cutters
- Round nose pliers
- Flat nose pliers
- Wire (0.8mm gauge)
- 16 x size 11 seed beads if making earrings, 8 of them for a pendant
- 16 x 6mm Swarovski bicones if making earrings, 8 of them for a pendant
- 2 x earwires to match the colour of wire used
Step 1
With the wire cutters, cut off around 4 inches of wire. Take the middle of the wire with the round nose pliers and wrap the wire over the pliers in both directions like in this picture below to form a loop. This will be the loop where you can attach a pendant bail or earwires.
Just a quick note on the wire, it does need to be strong enough to stay in shape as well as being thin enough to string on seed beads, so the 0.8mm gauge wire is perfect for this project.
Step 2
Using the widest point of the round nose pliers, wrap the wire over on one side as close as possible to the loop that you’ve just made.
Step 3
Repeat step 2 on the other side of the loop so that your component now looks like this. Don’t worry too much about the shape for now, as once your beads are on, you can then form the shape that you would like.
Step 4
On one side, slide on a seed bead and a swarovski crystal bicone. It might be tricky to push the bicone onto the section that has been shaped, if so, just bend the wire slightly the other way in order to position the bead. It should fit snugly into place when done.
Step 5
String on 3 each of seed beads and bicones alternately so that you have 4 of each in total on the wire. Once the last bead is strung, use the round nose pliers to grip the wire after the last bead and bend the wire so that the beads won’t fall off.
Step 6
Repeat step 5 on the other side of the loop.
Step 7
Once all the beads are strung, pull both ends of the wire together and wrap around each other. Do this whilst keeping the tension tight so the beads remain close together.
Step 8
Use the flat nose pliers to hold one end of the wire in place and wrap the other end of the wire around it. You can trim it as you see fit but I quite like the way that it looks when wrapped around all the way. Tuck the very end part of the wrapped wire around what will be the back of the component and squash it gently with the flat nose pliers to secure.
Step 9
On the remaining piece of wire, string a seed bead on for some extra decoration! Finish by trimming the wire, forming a loop with the round nose pliers and squashing it with the flat nose pliers.
Step 10
For the earwires, you can make your own to match using the same wire. See my tutorial on how to make earwires! Or you can use some that are ready made in a similar colour. I just used a couple of jump rings to attach the earwire to the loop in the middle of the wire heart component. You can also attach to a pendant bail and wear with a necklace.
I hope you liked this tutorial on making wire jewellery! As always, I’d love to hear from you. If you fancy making some other projects, you can see my other tutorials here!
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