carnelian and black agate earrings

December 17, 2009 at 12:58 pm | Posted in beading and jewelrymaking, projects to do | 9 Comments

This is the time of year when a quick, easy gift to craft up is just the thing (for me at least, anyway). Even the simplest present can be luxurious when the materials are special! I made sets of these little Carnelian and Black Agate Earrings using my favorite semi-precious stones for Pearl’s teachers at school, and thought I’d share the how-to over here.

For each pair of earrings, you’ll need:

Two semi-precious beads (all of mine came from Beyond Beads in San Francisco, one of my favorite places to shop)
Two earring wires
Two headpins
Pliers

1. Following the Solo Earrings instructions on page 32 of Bead Simple (or this video tutorial I made), place each bead on a headpin and create a wrapped loop above it. An illustrated sequence for the wrapped loop is also on pages 20-21 in the book, for reference.

2. Clip the wire tail and press it flush with the coil above the bead. Now open your earring wire and slip the bead dangle inside, closing the earring wire loop securely afterwards. Repeat to make the second earring.

3. Wrap them any way you’d like — I sewed some Tiny Ribboned Gift Bags (how-to over here) for mine, but you could tie them together with a ribbon, tuck them into a little box, or add them to another gift, too.

I also made Pearl’s main teacher a Black Agate Circle Deluxe Pendant — just follow the directions on page 121 to create your own! I put hers on an 18-inch chain instead of the neckwire the jade version in the book has, and added a simple clasp with jump rings — there’s a video showing how to do that here.

If you’re interested, I also have two more holiday craft tutorials up today — please go check them out if you’d like to!

The Tiny Ribboned Gift Bags I mentioned are over at West Coast Crafty,

and I designed a Tiny-Eyed Owl Ornament project for Button It Up!

I hope you have wonderful holidays and plenty of time to make pretty things! Thank you for your lovely support of Bead Simple the last almost-two years (!) and I’ll see you in the new year with more beading and jewelry ideas and sources to share!