Hi! My name is Sonia Kalian, owner of Monkey Business Jewelry Designs. And we’re going to get started today making a pair of sterling silver leverback earrings. Lets get started.
The materials we’re going to be using today are sterling silver headpins. They’re about an inch-and-a-half long, you can use longer ones, but the longer ones are more expensive. To attach our earring, I’m going to be using leverbacks. These sterling silver leverbacks are great for any age, and they’re simple to use. And to make our earrings today, I have a variety of components that we’re going to be playing with to make a pair of earrings. I’ve got some sterling silver findings. I have some beautiful kyanite blue stones, and some Swarovski crystals.
Now that we’ve gone over some basic supplies, let’s get started. First thing we’re going to do is we’re going to take our sterling silver headpin. Then we’re going to take our first component, which is the Swarovski crystal pink bead. Go ahead and thread that on the headpin. The next component in the pattern is the Swarovski crystal rondel. The next thing we’re going to add is this really pretty champagne colored Swarovski crystal.
So, this is what we’ve got so far. We’ve got the design down. Now, we’ve to get our flat nose pliers. Take your flat nose, and put them all the way as close to the bead as you can. When you’re doing that, don’t go to the end with your pliers, kind of come back about an eighth of an inch. At this point, all you’re going to do is take the wire with your thumb and push it down to a right angle. This right angle is where you’re going to start. At this point, you’re going to take your round nose pliers and you’re going to take the bottom part of the plier, and put it right in the crease.
At this point, take your finger and put it underneath the headpin, and roll it toward you. You’re making a perfect loop. Slide it out carefully, and then slide it back in on the lower jaw of the pliers. At this point what you’re going to do is you’re going to continue wrapping your loop all the way around. So, we’re going to take our thumb and wrap it around, just like that. After you have done that, take your flat nose again and grab on to that loop, so it doesn’t change the—you have got a perfect round shape here, you don’t want to change that shape, so grab on to it real good. Then you’re going to take your headpin, what’s left over, and start wrapping around the wire, keep wrapping. And as you’re wrapping make sure it's tight and from the top down, try not to leave any spaces. If you find that you do have a space, it's easy to fix, what you can do is take your beads and gingerly push it down to close that gap.
So, keep wrapping all the way around until you get to your bead. When you can’t go anymore, you’ve got this little piece of headpin left, we don’t need it, so we’re going to take our wire cutters here, and we’re going to just snip that off. Go ahead and cut off your piece of wire, that’s what you’re left with, that’s trash, and you’re left with your earrings. But we’re not finished yet, what you can do is you take position number two on your crimping tool, and you gently give it a little squeeze in a round motion to tuck that piece of wire underneath, and it's real clean. So, there you are. It’s your finish component here, and we’re going to attach it to the earrings now.
When you have your leverbacks, the loop where you’re going to attach your earring is cut, all you had to do to attach it is, with your flat nose pliers, grab on to the end, and right before you see the slice, just slightly move it to open that door, to let the earring go in.
Take your earring, of course where the seam is you want that to be in the back of the earring, just for aesthetics, slide that in, and with your pliers close the door. We just give it a little squish. Just tighten it up a little bit, so it looks good. There you are, you have your perfect pair of earrings that you made yourself.
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