All of the pretties needed for Carli’s Bridal Party Jewellery have arrived – and I’ve been keen to get started.
Me being organized.
I have gift boxes into which I’ve put bead trays, for laying out my work. I also use these boxes the keep the supplies for an individual design together – it’s a great way of seeing at a glance where everything is, and you don’t risk misplacing a vital piece amongst the chaos of a work bench.
The bridesmaids earrings will be using gold-filled metals – as the girls all have sensitive ears. To buy ready-made gold-filled head pins would have greatly increased the finished price of each set of earrings, so instead I opted to buy the wire in bulk and cut it myself.
Round 24 Gauge Gold-Filled Wire
I cut some lengths to 5 centimetres – these will be used with the teardrop crystal dangles. The rest of the wire I cut to 4 centimetres – enough for wrapping a bicones, and ensuring as little waste as possible.
To cut them I simply laid the wire down along my steel ruler and snipped with a pair of flush cutters.
After a session of cutting I was left with a number of pieces of wire – I won’t be making proper head pins (that is melting the metal to create a ball on the end), but instead will be gently turning the end to create a thicker wire.
Ready for the Earrings
And on to the first teardrop dangle – I have a feeling these earrings are going to look GORGEOUS!!
The First Dangle
A great video tutorial on how to wrap a teardrop can be found here – Jewelry Making – How to wire wrap a briolette. A tip for if you watch the video…. the point at which you use your pliers to bend the wires (just before beginning the wrap) I used my thumbnail.… You’ll see where I mean if you have a watch. It was much less fiddly than trying to get the bends in the right place with the pliers.
I’m going to be working on Carli’s designs over the weekend.
Stay tuned next Tuesday for the finished earring!
