Hello Darklings! I have been a busy bee once again, this time making Gothic ear cuffs as well as necklaces, earrings and other pieces of jewellery. In this blog though I am going to focus on the ear cuffs, and as you can see I have made quite a few.
They are made from silver plated wire, and though simple in design they are quite tricky little things to make because even the slightest mistake bending the wire can result in the cuff being too misshaped to be able to really salvage it. So when I'm making ear cuffs from wire I try to be as careful as I possibly can.
Ear cuffs can be made from sheet metal, wire or even polymer clay, I haven't made any ear cuffs from polymer clay yet but I plan to because the idea of a beautiful vibrant coloured ear cuff just appeals to me.
Here are the ear cuffs, and as always, I'll give a little description on how I made them. So I made these from silver plated wire, to get the right size I used a peg from my wire jig. You can buy these from any jewellery website. I have a wire jig that has varied peg sizes because I feel it's more versatile for the projects I'm working on.
I use hard or half hard silver plated wire, although hard wire can be difficult to work with so I recommend if your making ear cuffs for the first time buy soft or half hard wire. This will get your hands use to working with it. On to thickness of wire I tend to use wire that is 20 gage and 16 gage jewellery wire when making ear cuffs.
Tools you will need to start making your ear cuff.
1. Jewellery wire cutters.
2. Round nosed jewellery pliers.
3. Wire jig and pegs (one with various sized pegs preferably)
4. Flat nosed jewellery pliers (for attaching jump rings to the ear cuffs)
Firstly I positioned the wire half way around the peg then once I had made a half circle with wire, I used my round nosed pliers to bend the wire back up so I could continue to make another half circle. Think of this part as the layers of a cake . Trim off the excess wire and curl the ends of the wire as you can see in the photographs. These are really simple to make, as long as you be patient with it and take your time. I learnt that lesson the hard way!
Also a little tip if you don't curl the ends of the wire you might not be able to hang charms or chains from them like I have done, but if you just want a plain ear cuff then you just need to sand off the jagged edges that occur when you cut the wire. Also you may need to manipulate the wire a little bit after you have finished making the cuff, this is just so you get the best comfort when your wearing it. Don't be to rough when manipulating the metal though!
Thank you for reading and keep it spooky Darklings!
