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Wednesday 6 November 2013

Pastel drop earrings

Pastel drop earrings
In this tutorial I will show you how to make a pair of pastel drop earrings. The drop beads are made of resin, and I love the intense coulor of these beads. I have kept the colour palette fairly soft by combining them with cabochons made of natural materials. The filigree of the bead caps gives the earrings a lovely vintage look, and you'll see that they are quite light, even though they are quite long. It's a great design and the possibilities to vary the look and colours are endless!
What do you need for 1 pair of pastel drop earrings?
  • 1 pair of resin drop beads. These beads are designed to imitate the colours of turquoise and coral.
  • 2 head pins, bronze, 70 mm.
  • 2 long bronze filigree bead caps.
  • 2 ear studs with a lace edge setting, 12 mm.
  • 2 cabochons, 12 mm. I opted for cabochons made of natural materials. The soft colours of the rose quartz, aventurine, and howlite cabochons really bring out the colours of the resin beads.
  • A drop of glue to attach the cabochons.
  • Pliers.
Needed for pastel drop earrings
How do you proceed?
  • The setting of the ear stud has a lace edge, a sculpted edge. Fold down 1 of the eyes of the edge so a pendant can be attached to the setting.
Fold down one of the eyes on the edges of the ear stud
  • Make the pendants with the drop beads.
  • First, have a look at the bead caps. It might be that they need to be bent into shape. Be careful when you slide them over the bead; you don't want to damage the resin.
  • Also, you might want to have a look at the head pins to make sure they are straight. If they aren't, just bend them into shape.
  • The photograph shows a blue bead on the head pin. I have used this bead to make sure I always have an extra bit of pin left to make an eyelet for the pendant. This bead is 8 mm in size, so if I cut off the material above the bead, I will have exactly 8 mm to make the eyelet. You will see it's a great little trick to make sure the pandants' eyelets are of equal size.
Create pendants with bead caps
  • Don't fold the eyelet of the pendant all the way through; you need to attach it to the eyelet of the ear stud before you can close it up!
Connect the pendant and the ear stud
  • Glue the cabochon into the ear stud.
Glue the cab in the stud
  • Now, the eyelet of the ear stud can be gently folded back into their original position. However, if you prefer to keep the eyelet as it is, you can of course choose to keep it folded down.
Fold the ear stud's lace edge


Faux turquoise drop earrings


Faux coral drop earrings


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