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Face-Framing Wire Earrings Tutorial

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

These easy wire earrings feature graceful curves that frame your face in a flattering way.

They also have lots of wonderful swingy movement!

These earrings are an especially fab style with short hair or hair that’s pulled back, so all the wires can dance freely.

Supplies:

• Round wire – anywhere from 16 to 20 gauge – soft or half-hard. (This is a good project for using wire from your scrap pile!)

  Although I used mixed metals in my earrings, they’re also lovely with just one metal.

  I used 16-gauge soft copper and brass:

  

• Wire cutter (be sure to use a cutter that’s made for heavier gauges of wire, so you don’t ruin your best cutters).
• Round nose pliers (again, be sure to use pliers that are made for heavier gauges of wire).
• A file, cup burr, or knife sharpening stone for smoothing off the wire ends.
• Hammer and steel block (optional, but I think the hammering is part of what makes these earrings so fab!).

  You can also substitute another sturdy, smooth surface in place of the steel block.

  

• 2 jump rings.
• 1 pair of earwires.
• Flat-nose or chain-nose pliers for opening and closing the jump rings.

How to Make These
Face-Framing Wire Earrings:

Each earring needs three wire dangles – 1 short, 1 medium, and 1 long.

I used copper wire for my short and long dangles, and brass for my medium dangles.

Cut 2 wires of each size:

• Short wires: 1.75″ (4.5 cm) long.
• Medium wires: 2.5″ (7 cm) long.
• Long wires: 3.25″ (8.3 cm) long.

I just let my wires keep the curve they had from being part of the coiled-up packaged wire.

But if your wires aren’t curved, you can shape them around a soup can or vitamin bottle to give them a gentle curve.

Your cut wires should look something like this:

Now use a cup bur, metal file, or knife-sharpening stone to smooth and round both ends of each wire:

We’re going to make a plain wire loop on one end of each wire.

Since we want all 6 loops to be the same size, we’re going to use a super-fine-tip Sharpie marker to mark a line on one jaw of our round nose pliers.

This line (shown on the top jaw of the pliers below) is where we’re going to place our wire for each loop we make in this project:

Now make a plain wire loop on one end of each wire.

(If you’re new to making plain loops, or if you struggle with making them, see my super easy 2-minute How to Make a Plain Wire Loop Video.)

Your wires should now look like this:

Now hammer each piece of wire to flatten it to a nice shape.

You can do a bit of extra hammering on the straight ends, to give them a nicely rounded flare.

If your loops come open a bit during the hammering, simply use your pliers to close them again.

Hammering is optional in this project – but I really think it adds a lot to the finished look!

After hammering, your wires should look like this:

Now we’re going to put our wire dangles on the jump rings.

Open both of your jump rings and hang one long dangle on each jump ring:

Now hang your medium dangles on your jump rings – but place them so that they curve in the opposite direction from your long dangles:

Hang your short dangles on the jump rings – and place them so that they curve in the same direction as your long dangles:

Now close your jump rings and hang them on your earwires:

I recommend wearing these earrings with the longest dangles curving around your face instead of away from it.

It’s a lovely, flattering look!

And here are the steel and copper ones I made for my sister’s birthday gift: