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Creepy Crawly Spider Earrings (Tutorial)

by Rena Klingenberg. © 2003-Present Rena Klingenberg. All Rights Reserved

These bead and wire spider earrings are fun to make and sure to get comments!

This is a good jewelry project for tweens, teens, and adults – and could be a great Halloween party make-and-take.

Supplies:

• 2 pony beads (I didn’t have pony beads so I used 10mm acrylic beads with a 2.5mm hole).
  Pony beads would be a better choice because they have a 4mm hole, so you’ll be able to use a heavier gauge of wire for the spider legs.

  The beads I used:
  

• Craft wire / artistic wire – 8 pieces of wire, each 3-15/16″ (10cm) long.
  If you’re using pony beads, use 20 or 22 gauge wire.
  For my 2.5mm hole beads I used 24 gauge wire.

  The wire I used:
  

• 4 jump rings. Mine are 8mm size:
  
• A pair of earwires.
  Mine are from my Easy Fancy Earwires Tutorial:
  
• Wire cutter.
• Round nose pliers.
• Flat nose pliers.
• Chain nose pliers.
• Regular Sharpie marker – to mark your pliers.
• Ultra fine tip Sharpie marker – to draw your spiders’ faces.

How to Make
Creepy Crawly Spider Earrings:

We’ll start by using the regular-size Sharpie marker to draw a line on one jaw of our round nose pliers, about halfway down the jaw.

This mark will make it easy to create the same size loop above each spider’s head:

(You can easily remove the mark from your pliers later with a few drops of rubbing alcohol on a scrap of paper towel.)

Now cut your 8 pieces of wire, each 3-15/16″ (10cm) long:

If You’re Using 22 or 24 Gauge Wire:

We’ll make these wires stronger by work-hardening them before we start making the spiders.

Wire gets harder the more you bend it, work with it, hammer it, or tumble it.

Here we’ll use friction to work-harden our wire wire:

With one hand, hold the bundle of wires together at one end.

With your other hand, pull the wires through your fingers several times, so your fingers slide along the entire length of the wires.

Each time the wires run through your fingers, they get a little bit stiffer, springier, and sturdier:

Then turn your wire bundle around so that you’re holding the other end of the wires, and pull the wires through your fingers several more times.

When you’ve finished, your wires should be noticeably stiffer and sturdier.

Now we’ll make the spiders.

We’ll make one spider at a time.

Start with four of your wires:

. . . and use your round nose pliers to grasp the midpoint of your wire bundle – making sure the wires are resting on the Sharpie mark you drew on your pliers:

Now bend the sides of your wires straight down, so that the center of your wire bundle is tightly curved across the bottom plier jaw:

Use your flat nose pliers to squeeze the wires tightly together below the round nose pliers, creating a sort of loop at the top of the wire bundle:

Now your wires should look like this:

Thread one of your beads onto your wires, making sure all 8 wire ends (spider legs) go through the bead hole.

Slide the bead all the way up the wires until it rests against the bottom of the wire loop:

Now turn your round nose pliers over so that the spider’s legs are on top.

Stretch the legs out so there are 2 groups of 4 legs:

Remove the spider from your round nose pliers.

Now we’ll make the spider’s feet.

Use the tips of your round nose pliers to grasp one spider leg:

. . . and roll the wire end into a little loop:

Make little loop feet on the other seven legs.

Then use your flat nose pliers to straighten any crooked feet or legs:

Use your flat nose pliers to bend each leg at the knee:

Now your spider should look like this:

It’s time to give your spider a face!

Use your ultra fine tip Sharpie marker to draw the face on your bead.

Do you want her to have a friendly expression, a sinister one, or is she winking?

Does she need fangs? Lipstick? Eyelashes?

(If you don’t like the way the face turned out, simply erase it with a few drops of rubbing alcohol on a scrap of paper towel. Then dry the bead thoroughly and try again.)

When you’ve finished the face on your spider, it’s time to make the second spider the same way you made the first one:

Now it’s time to attach the earwires to the spiders.

Use your chain nose and flat nose pliers to twist open your jump rings (if you’re new to using jump rings, see my quick tip, How to Open and Close Jump Rings).

Attach one jump ring to the loop on top of the spider’s head.

Attach a second jump ring above the first.

Attach your earwire to the second jump ring:

Now your finished creepy crawly spider earrings should look like this: