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Leaf & Vine Wire Earrings (Tutorial)

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

These Leaf & Vine wire earrings give a lovely impression of tendrils and leaves.

Supplies:

• 20 gauge Artistic wire (or other craft wire); I used “Gunmetal” color.
  You’ll need 2 pieces of this wire, each 16cm (6.3″) long.

  

• 2 Leaf-shaped beads. You could also use a flower-shaped or petal-shaped bead.
  My beads are Czech glass, about 12mm x 10mm.

  

• A pair of earwires. If you want to use the same style of earwires I used, you can make your own with my Easy Fancy Earwires Tutorial.
• Wire cutter.
• Round nose pliers.
• Flat nose pliers.
• Chain nose pliers.
• A single-serving size bottle of drinking water (you don’t need the water, just the bottle).

How to Make the
Leaf & Vine Wire Earrings:

Start by cutting your two pieces of 20 gauge Artistic wire, each 16cm long:

We’ll make one earring at a time.

Use your round nose pliers to grasp one of your wires, 6cm (2.3″) from one end.

(You can see I’ve used a Sharpie marker to mark my pliers jaw so that when we make our loop in the next step, both earrings’ loops will be the same size):

Now bring both wire ends upward until they cross over each other, so you’re forming a loop in your wire:

Grasp the wire loop with your flat nose pliers, and use your chain nose pliers to grasp the wire ends.

Gently turn the loop 2 or 3 times to create a few twists above the loop:

Your loop with twists should look something like this:

And your wire should look like this:

Now wrap the shorter end of your wire around the neck of your drinking-water bottle, to curve it into a nice arc:

Now your wire should look like this:

Now we’ll use the longer (straight) end of our wire to create a filigree “vine” with tendrils, growing organically around the curved end of our wire.

You can use your round nose pliers to make vine loops, and occasionally wrap your vine a couple of times around the curved wire.

There’s no planned pattern – we want it to look like the lovely randomness of Nature.

Here’s the beginning of my vine:

And here it is after a couple of wraps around the curved wire:

Now your wire should look something like this:

After a couple more vine loops, we need to stop in order to leave enough wire below our vine loops for a leaf bead:

Now string one of your leaf beads onto the straight end of your wire:

Next we’ll make a tiny tendril loop below the leaf bead.

Using the tips of your round nose pliers, grasp the tip of the wire below your bead:

. . . and use your pliers to turn the wire end into a small loop that looks like a vine end:

Now your wire should look something like this:

Now we’re going to make a nice little curly vine end on the other end of our wire.

Using the tips of your round nose pliers, grasp the end of your curved wire and make a tiny hook shape, curling in the opposite direction of the wire’s main curve:

Move your pliers along the wire, making tiny curves, to create a small open spiral (if you’ve never made an open spiral, see my 3-minute video tutorial Make an Open Wire Spiral):

Now your wire should look something like this:

It’s time to attach one of your earwires to the loop at the top of your vine:

And this earring is done!

Now it’s time to make the second earring.

Make the second earring curve in the opposite direction from the first earring.

Now when you wear the earrings, they’ll curve nicely to frame your face.

Your finished Leaf & Vine earrings should look something like this: