Beaded earring tutorial

Ever wanted to know how to turn those extra beads of yours into super cute earrings?? Follow this super simple method and start your own earring collection!

Materials, here's what you'll need:

• A pair of wire cutters
• A pair of round nosed pliers
• various beads/combinations of beads of your choice
• head pins color of your choice
• Earring wires, shapes and colors of your choice

Everything you will need can be found at your local craft store or online

Step 1: String bead of your choice onto head pin. Make sure it is at the bottom of the wire and cut the wire approximately 1 centimeter above the end of the bead:
Step 2: With round nosed pliers, curl end of wire that you have just cut with pliers onto itself to form a new "closed on itself circle:"

Step 3: Open earwire and string through newly closed wire circle. Rotate bead in place, make sure it can dangle and move freely from hooks:

Just repeat with second earwire and now you have yourself a nice new pair of earrings:

Now you are saying, GEEZ that was simple...show me something more complicated for goodness sake? If you'd like to expand upon the first design and add another bead or two to your new earrings, just follow these steps:

Step 1: Follow steps in first tutorial to get your head pin secured inside your bead: Step 2: Secure another bead inside a head pin the same way, but don't close the wire circle loop all the way yet:

Step 3: Slip unclosed wire loop of second bead through closed loop of first bead:
Step 4: Close wire loop of second bead securely with round nose pliers:
Step 5: Gently open up top closed loop of first bead and slip earwire onto loop:

Step 6: Close wire loop with earwire connected securely with round nose pliers:
And now you have another pair of earrings!
This simple "wire looping" connection technique can be used in so many different way other than simple earring construction! You can connect an entire bracelet, necklace, or other chain of beads in this same mannor!

Hope you have fun!

You can find both pair of these earrings for sale in the Etsy Labs shop!

Etsy Metal Trunk Show!

Please come help usher in the Spring with some of the Etsy Metalsmiths at the Etsy Labs on April 27. This is a free event!

There will be spirits and lots of beautiful jewelry to buy!

Friday April 27 6-8pm Etsy Labs 325 Gold Street, 6th FloorBrooklyn, NY 11201

Hope we'll see you here!

Pendant tutorial: Personalize your tags!!

Ever wanted to write something special, custom, or downright ridiculous on metal tags?? Well this is how you do it:
Materials…here’s what you’ll need:

Aluminum (or any thin metal) tags…any shape will do
A small steel block (or other hard surface you can hammer on)
A Plastic, wooden, or rawhide malletLetter stamps

( you can find all of these tools at any metal supply store or super cheap online)

Step 1: Place aluminum tag on steel block and place first letter stamp face down but straight onto tag. Step 2: Take out letter stamps that have the corresponding letters to what you want to write and line them up in the order in which your word is spelled. We chose to stamp “Etsy” and “Etsy Labs” on our tags so we took out E, T, S, and Y letters. This step makes it easier when stamping to find what you are looking for and therefore you can get more done in less time.

Make sure the letter is in the right position and you don’t goof up by placing the letter backwards (like I have done several times in the past)!

Step 3: Holding the stamp on the tag with one hand, give the top of the stamp a couple firm straight blows with your hammer or mallet.

Then repeat this step by positioning the following letters where you would like them to fit on your tag and hammering them in place.

Step 4: Admire your new customized tag! If you would like, you could add a patina to the letters to make them stand out a bit more, but we chose the “just stamped” look for ours!

Happy Stamping, and keep in mind we have all the tools here if you’d like to drop by and customize a piece of your own!

For those of you that missed out on Chuck's (DowntotheWireDesigns.etsy.com) visit to the Labs, I thought I'd share some pics of him working throughout the day yesterday:
He came and got settled in the metals area and flamed up the torch with a few ring designs in mind,

Then he worked meticulously on his new designs,

After a couple hours, he had decided to not only design a couple rings, but also a pair of earrings,

Here he is polishing the earrings with the Flexible shaft:

At the end of the day, he showed me his finished pair of earrings and so graciously said he would like to donate them to the Etsy Labs shop in hopes of helping to support more equipment and the idea of the Labs...wow!

These are the earrings that he made from start to finish while at the Labs, all silver with some mild patina and polished to perfection! You can see some more pics and angles of them in our Etsy shop here.

Thanks so much Chuck for a great visit, good company, and these beautiful earrings!

First Etsy Labs listing!!

Check out Joanne working hard in the metal studio:

These fabulous earrings were designed and handmade by Joanne of JoanneTracyDesigns. Joanne signed up for a couple beginning jewelry making classes from the workshop pages of the Etsy Labs and learned some new skills. She then used her PAL membership to the Etsy Labs to come use the metal bench she had learned those skills on to make this new pair of earrings and hang out with us...and finally, they are the first product born (made...haha) at the Etsy Labs to be listed on Etsy for sale!!

They are listed right here and I'm sure they won't last long!

-Mary