How To Make Your Own Earrings

In this video, I'm going to show you how to make silver earrings. To begin with, you will need some silver. I have two pieces of silver here. This silver I am using, the thickness is .5 of a millimeter. You could use up to .8 of a millimeter. You will also need some cutting shears. These are metal cutting shears. You also need some files, these are little needle files. I have a flat file and a half round file to file the edges. You may need a scriber which is a drawing tool, that you can use for drawing a design on metal and if you wish, you could use a ruler if you would like your silver charms to be a particular size. You will also need a pair of flat nosed pliers, a pair of needle nose pliers and you will need a mallet, a center punch and a steel, and a steel block to make a hole, and a drill. I have, in the drill, a one millimeter drill bit. The first step is to measure your charm. The width of my silver is one centimeter. I'm going to make a one centimeter charm. I place my ruler next to the silver and use the scriber to mark one centimeter. I then use the set square to draw the line across. I place the metal. I'm holding the square in front of me. I place the metal behind the square, so the metal is away from me. I use my finger to secure the metal off of the set square and use the scriber to draw a straight line. As I'm using cutting shears to cut the metal, the thickest metal to use is .8 of a millimeter. But the best thickness is to use .5 of a millimeter. It is a fairly thin sheet of metal and it will allow you to cut slightly more organic shapes. When you use the shears, the metal tends to be quite sharp and you will need to file the edges with some needle files. You hold the piece in your finger together quite firmly, rest your hand on your table or your bench and file along the edges. For my shape, it's just a square; just the corners are quite sharp. Now, I have my pieces of silver and you need to decide now, where are you going to put the holes to hang them? You're going to hang them so that they hang like a triangle, and before you can drill them, you need to make a little mark so that to drive the drill into the correct place. Now, position the center punch. This, you can purchase at a hardware store. And now, this is a leather mallet. But you could use any hammer, a DIA hammer would be fine, but don't apply too much pressure. Just hammer it lightly once, just enough to make a little mark. Bring down the drill bit to guide the drill to where my hole is, before I turn on the machine, so that I know it's in the correct place. Turn on the machine, drill the hole and turn off. Now, when I've used the cutting shears, it bent the edges of the metal a little bit. So, I'm going to straighten them out by hammering on a steel block. Whenever you are hammering metal, you always want to hammer on a steel block with a leather mallet. If you use a metal hammer, it will mark the silver. Now, I'm going to show you how to make silver earring hooks. What you will need, you need some pliers, you need flat nose pliers, needle nose, side cutters, cutting wire, round nose pliers, you also need a length of wire. For this particular video, I'm going to use some silver plated wire. But if you're making actual earring hooks, you will need hard silver wire and the best thickness is .8 of a millimeter. So, I will still be using silver plated wire. You will need a needle file, a flat needle file and a little ruler to measure the length. The first things we'll do are these. It's a simple hook, which you can also purchase, though it's very easy to make yourself. The first step is you measure your wire. I'm going to cut my wire to five centimeters in length. As it is going to be earring hooks, you want the ends to be fairly dull. When you cut the ends with these cutters, they end up being quite sharp. So, like, you need to file the end with your needle file, hold the wire in your hand and apply a reasonable amount of pressure with the file along the ends. And what you're aiming for is you're going to have a flat end. And, you use your round nose pliers and you make a little circle, because what you have right here is what you will be hanging whatever you use for your earring, silver charms or a bead. You position the wire in between the nose of the pliers and you want the wire to be held at the very end. The best way to check it is to run your fingers along the other side of the pliers as you just about feel the end, then you use your thumb to press the wire around the nose of the pliers so that you end up with that shape. You repeat this process, if you're making a pair; you repeat the process on the other wire. Now, I'm going to make a loop in the middle. So, I position the wire between the nose of the pliers so that the middle of the wire's being held by the pliers. Just the point here that I need is facing up. Now, I'm going to bend this wire down. It might twist as you're doing it, but you can always straighten it out with the wire plier afterwards. It might twist a little bit. Now, we see where the other one is, you put it down, then you take either your flat nose pliers or round nose pliers and you turn the end down, and this is your stopper, this little nick, at the bottom, will prevent the ends from coming out of your ear. Now that you've made your silver charms and you have your earring hooks, you put them together to make a pair of silver earrings. You use your flat nose pliers to open the loop. And, to open the loop, it's best to hold the loop here at the largest part and then you open the little loop and then push it away from you. You thread in your little charm, then you close and surely, you don't have the gap. And, to avoid having a gap, you could push the wire towards. You push them towards that wire. Then you do the same with the other side. And that's how you make a silver pair of earrings.