Bottle Cap Earrings

We're hoping everyone had a fun New Year's while kicking off 2012! And just in case your New Year's involved the requisite imbibing of holiday hooch, here's a fun little project for any leftover bottle caps you may have acquired! Here's what you'll need:

• A pair of matching bottle caps
• Beads (optional)
• Earwires
• Europunch tool
• Round-nose pliers (for making loops if you're adding beads)
• Needle-nose pliers (for wiring the beads if you're adding any)
• Cutters (for cutting wire if you're adding beads)
• Wire
• Jump rings

Let's start with the bottle caps. Find two matching ones (and if you have to down another bottle to do so, well, so be it!) You'll need a Europunch tool for this part -- don't worry, we have plenty at the store! It's what you use to punch holes through the bottle cap.

Line up your punch tool in the side of the cap, so that the logo will be right side up. Then, simply squeeze the handle together and punch right through that cap!

Then slide a jump ring through the hole and close it up. At this point, you could either slide another jump ring through the first and attach the bottle caps to earwires for a simple, no-frills set of bottle cap earrings, or you can find some complementary beads and stick them on eyepins or headpins (or wire) to augment your earrings.



I decided to add beads, to give my earrings a slightly more finished look. I used some red Chinese crystal rondelles for the top, and little red stars to dangle below -- seemed perfect for these "Lone Star" earrings! Then stick some earwires on and you're good to go!

Here's another pair, featuring Shiner's special Oktoberfest brew, along with some autumn-colored beads (brown Chinese crystals and tan glass pearls). I used bronze wire for a complementary look.

There's no limit to these neat little accessories -- make some for your friends!

Happy beading, and Happy New Year!

-Astra

Precious Pinwheel Tutorial

Here's a quick little project if you're looking for something simple. You'll need to know how to make a basic loop, and how to open jump rings -- that's it! You will also need the following materials:

• 1 large base-metal ring (34mm, or 1.5” in diameter -- we sell them at the store)
• 9 6mm bicone beads (preferably Swarovski crystals)
• 2 6mm 18G jump rings
• 9 4mm 18G jump rings
• 2 pairs of bent-nose OR needle-nose pliers (flat on the inside) (Bent-nose are preferable for gripping jump rings)
• 1 pair of cutters
• 1 round-nose plier (cone-shaped arms)
• Ear-wire, chain, bail, etc – depending on whether you're making earrings or a pendant (double the quantities if you're making earrings)

Using these materials, and following the step-by-step instructions in the 4-page handout (available to read/download by clicking here), you can make this:

Have fun!

How to Make Jump Rings

We've been doing a number of chain mail classes lately (with a new one coming up this Wednesday, July 27, called Mermaid's Tail Earrings), so we figured we'd add a quickie tutorial on how to make jump rings.

First, you'll want to select your coiling tool, which could be a knitting needle, screwdriver, pen, etc. You can get an idea of how big your jump rings will be by measuring the diameter of your coiling tool with a caliper. I'm opting for a knitting needle about 6mm in diameter, which will result in jump rings about that size (the inner diameter will be about 6mm, while the outer will be slightly bigger).



Select a decent gauge of wire (20G or thicker) and start by coiling your wire around your tool. Try to keep your coils nice and tight. Keep coiling until you have about an inch or so of coiled wire. When you're done, just slide your coil off of your tool (a metal tool works best – the coil slides off more easily than on wood, where it can stick if you've coiled too tightly).




Next, you'll use a pair of flush-cutters to begin snipping your jump rings. You always want to keep the flat side of the flush-cutters facing your work, so you'll need to keep flipping the flush-cutters over as you cut, and snipping off the very tip of your wire from the previous cut.

Notice how the cutters are flipped in the next image? Each time you cut, you'll want to flip your cutters so the flat side is facing the jump ring. This is to make sure the cut ends of the jump ring are as even as possible.





However, you may want to file the ends of your jump rings, as this helps to make sure they're as flush as possible – ideally, you want the ends to fit snugly together. But you've just made your first batch of jump rings!



You can find a full tutorial of this process by downloading this .PDF -- it also includes the sawing technique for cutting jump rings. Enjoy!