jewelry diamond earrings

i've got some really cool earrings to showyou today, i actually originally developed these earrings for the, let's see it's thesouthwest florida jewelry arts guild, that's a long name so i always have to think aboutit. but i did a presentation to their entire bead society there and we made these earringsin the big group. there were probably about 70 people there so it was quite an undertakingbut it was cool too because we had people who had never done beadweaving before andthey were able to get the earrings done in the time frame of the meeting so i thoughtthat i would go ahead and share them with the rest of you guys and so now not just southflorida will be rocking these earrings. let's take a look at what we're doing. these arewhat i call my whirlygig earrings, and the

way that they're made is we're gonna createthis flat piece of right angle weave, don't be afraid, it's just going to be the mostsimple kind of right angle weave, just one pass of it, we add a larger bead on one side,we add a smaller bead on the other side which kind of creates a curve. and then we createthis whirlygig kind of design by adding the pearls down the center and so that's our planfor today. here is how we're going to start out (let me get these out of the way ) we'regonna start out just using some size 11 seed beads and that's what i have here, i've alreadyattached a stopper bead to the end of this, you only need to use maybe about 3 feet ofthread to make the entire earring so don't go crazy with your fireline. either a size10 or a size 12 needle will work for ya, so

when you start out with right angle weave,with one bead per side here, we're going to pick up 4 beads. you're going to bring thosedown and pass through all 4 of those beads from your tail end back up again. that stilldoesn't turn it into a circle you'll notice, you have like this little loop of thread goingon here, so you want to go from that tail end, keep going, go another 2 beads past (okthis guy doesn't want to go through here i'm going to flip it so that i can get it on theproper side for me) so 2 beads past, and then i'm also going to go 1 more bead past thateven, and the reason i did that is because now my tail thread is coming out one sideof this section of 4 and my working thread is coming out the other side and that's exactlywhat i wanted to happen because now i know

that this is where i started and i'm growingfrom the working thread side. when you do right angle weave every time you add anotherset of beads you have one shared bead at least on the first row, you'll just have one sharedbead. so instead of picking up 4 beads for my next right angle weave unit i'm only gonnapick up 3 you're going to pass back through that same bead that your thread is currentlycoming out of you have to go in the side where there's no thread otherwise your beads willjust pull off the thread if you go in the other direction. so now i have the 2 rightangle weave units going on here, the thing is, i want my thread to be on this outsideedge so that i can grow it some more so that means i have to keep going around the circleso that i can come out that outside edge bead.

don't be afraid to flip this, you can flipit over so that you can get through the beads as you need, it does not matter so now, herei am and i've passed through 2 beads and now i'm coming out that outside edge bead againpick up another 3 beads, and we're just going to keep doing this until we have 16 unitsso here i am with my next 3 beads, i'm going back through the same bead that my threadis coming out of i'm going to flip it just so that i can get a better angle, cause nowi need to go through the next 2 beads to get to that outside edge. some people will tellyou that you can go ahead and go through those 2 beads at the same time, i prefer to go throughthem 1 at a time, i find that my little right angle weave unit square up much better ifi do that. so i don't take shortcuts in right

angle weave. i'll add a couple more unitshere and then i'll show you how we're gonna count these units. so i'm picking up 3, passingthrough the bead that i'm coming out of, flip it, go through one, go through 2, so i'm onthe outside edge, *voila* and same thing here, and then when i get to this outside edge i'llshow you how we're going to count these. so, you're going to be going along here and you'regoing to be trying to figure out how many you have, the easiest way to count is you'vegot what i call the sticky-outy beads along each edge, each one of those sticky-outy beadsrepresents one unit. go ahead and count those, so here i've got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, i've got 5units here. you just want to keep adding your sets of 3, getting to the outside edge, allthe way until you have 16 total units, and

then come on back to me and we will get tothe second step of these earrings. so now you've got your 16 units and let's go aheadand take a look at what we're going to do next, it's so easy you're just going to belike "really? that's it!?" so let's take a look at the beads, i've got my 16 units herei've counted along the edge here, i'm coming out that outside edge seed bead, and whati'm gonna do is i'm just gonna now move one more seed bead around so that i am now comingout one of these sticky-outies along the edge. you might have noticed when i was doing thati kind of pulled it, there was a little bit of thread showing here, when you're tighteningthis you want to tighten in the direction that the thread is moving through the bead.so if i tighten outward which is everybody's

kinda instinct, is to pull in their dominanthand's direction, that actually opens up the space with the thread showing so if you actuallypull in the direction that the thread is coming through the beads to tighten it up then thatsucks up all that thread, so that's just a tip for ya. so what i'm going to do here iswhat i call stitch in the ditch, the first time i heard this term was with cynthia rutledgeso i don't know if she came up with it or not but that's who i learned it from. whatthat means is all i'm doing here is i'm going to pick up, in this case a size 8 seed beadnow, i've been using 11's for that base, now i'm going to pick up a size 8 and i'm justgoing to pass through the next sticky-outy seed bead. because this is a bigger bead,that i'm putting in this little intersection,

you're just going to do that all the way downis pick up a size 8, go through the next sticky-outy so by putting a bigger bead in these intersectionsit's going to create a little curve in this piece. if you use seed beads for awhile thenyou know not all size 8 seed beads are the same size, it depends on what manufactureryou're using, so for some of you this might be a very dramatic curve depending on whatseed bead you're using, for some of you it might be a little more of a not quite as dramaticcurve, i'm sure there's a better term for that. but i'm concentrating on my beads, ijust love these size 8's, they're so beautiful. they are a copper lined aqua. so as i'm doingthis, you can kinda see that we're getting a little bit of a curve to this, a naturalcurve now, i'm going to work this all the

way down to the end, one of the things i liketo do because i like a very exaggerated curve, is i actually cherry pick my beads when ido this, so i'm actually looking for the ones that are a little bit thicker, because thesebeads happen to not be super thick size 8s. ok, so this is my last size 8 along this edge,(get mr. tail thread out of the way there) and there you've got your curve what we'regoing to do now just basically pull a u-turn, and we're going through that bead on the edge,i like to put that tail in my hand so that i can tuck it away, come through the firststicky-outy on this inside edge, and now on the inside edge, we're going to pick up asize 15 seed bead this time and that is also then going to exaggerate the curve becausenow we can have a smaller bead than the 11

pulling it tighter, and that's going to giveus more of a curve. so we'll do that all the way to the end, one of the biggest thingsto look for when you're doing this is making sure that when you're putting your needlethrough this sticky-outy bead, sometimes your needle will accidentally pick up the nextsticky-outy bead at the same time, so kind of keep an eye out for that, keep an eye outfor any looped threads, so sometimes because we do have beads that are sticking out yourthread can catch on them, or catch around the end here and then you'll have thread showingon the outside of your earring. and you'll be sad, and we don't like sad beaders, okalmost to the end here, these earrings work up so quickly too, you can make several pairin an evening actually, so they're good for

gifts, they're good for selling if you docraft shows, this would be a great thing to do for those. i have people who email me allthe time asking me permission to make things for auctions, charity auctions, i always allowyou guys to sell these pieces, to do them as auctions. alright so now look, look howbig that curve is now that we've added those 15's in there. so now we have got one morestep to do to finish the body of this earrings, and that's going to be to add our pearls.let's see here, there's my other pearl, my extra pearl, i used him as my stopper bead,there it is. so this is the part that is most confusing to people, i actually, what i haveyou do, pass through that bead right on that tip again so that you're coming through thebead on the tip. i actually have you come

through the center hole of these set of 4beads here on the edge, so you've got the 4 size 11's you're actually going to go rightin the center of those 4 size 11's. you're not going through a bead, you're going throughcenter of the unit. so i have you pop through that center, you'll pick up a 15, and a pearl,and a 15, and then you're going to count to the number of units, in this particular casei count the centers, so you want to go through the 5th one past where you are, so don't countthe one your thread is coming out of, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. and i'm going to pass through thecenter of that unit. and then it just pulls together, right like that. going to do theexact same thing pick up a 15, a pearl, and a 15, i am not counting the unit that i'mcoming out of, we're getting to the point

where i've gotta put the glasses on, ok i'mnot counting the unit that i'm coming out of which is this one, and instead i am going1, coming out of this guy, 1, 2, 3, 4, and there's 5. i'm just gonna pop my needle straightthrough the center, there we go, and we're starting to get our zig zag, we've got thelast pearl to add. so a 15, a pearl, and a 15, and this we don't have to count causewe know that we're just gonna go through the very last unit. the center of that unit. andthere's our earring base. so once you get that accomplished, come on back and i'm goingto talk to you about ending your thread off and then how you're going to attach the earwire. we've got just a couple of little things left to do for these earrings, and this is whatwe're looking at, we've gone ahead and added

in those pearls along the edge, now this isa point of wear and tear because this is going to have some flex to it, it's also going tobe easy, right now there's only one line of thread right now going down the center ofthis, actually i guess i should show it to you this way. going down the center of this,and so i think it's best to reinforce this before you go any farther, the way i reinforceit is i'm coming out that center section there, and what i wanna do is actually pass throughthat tip seed bead again, it's a very useful little seed bead, and then i will pass throughthat center hole again of the 4 beads of this right angle weave unit, and then when i passthrough that hole, i'm also going to catch that size 15 seed bead, the pearl and the15. and this is easier said than done, ok

so i got the 15 there, you may have to takeit 1 bead at a time to get your needle all up through there, then through the 15, throughthe hole, and then you can look on the opposite side, go through the 15, through the pearl,15 on the other end, which is around here somewhere, through the hole, then throughthe 15 on the next one, through the pearl and then through the 15, i got lucky therei got through a whole bunch of them at the same time. and then last but not least throughthat center section again. and to anchor it pass through that little tip guy so at thatpoint now you've got 2 passes of thread through here and you're going, you will actually feelit tightening up as you do that, it'll make a huge difference in your earring. when wego to attach this to an earwire, what i like

to do is attach it straight from this littletip seed bead that we're already coming out of, i pick up 6 of my size 15 seed beads,and then i don't attach it directly to the earwire, and then reason why is no matterwhat kind of earwire you're using, i've got several different kinds here, this is a leverback, and this is just a little french hook, but there's always going to be an openingwhere you normally would attach, say, wire if you had done a wire wrap loop or something,there's always going to be an opening there, and because we're using such a fine threadi'm always concerned that that thread is going to find that opening and pop out and thenyour earring will fall off so what i do instead is i use a little 4mm closed jump ring, andthe difference between a regular jump ring

and a closed jump ring is that a closed jumpring has been soldered shut, so where they made that cut to make the jump ring they'vegone ahead and soldered it so there is no opening on a closed jump ring. the other thingthat i like about using a closed jump ring is then you get a really nice movement toyour piece, in this case i had used some larger jump rings here, i've now gone down to a 4mmbut then you get a metal to metal connection when it's moving and it's just, i think itjust moves really nicely when you use the jump ring. so what we're gonna do is we'vepicked up those 6 15's and then we're going to pick up that closed jump ring and thenpass through that tip seed bead again, like so, and then that jump ring will just movenicely along that little loop. my rule of

thumb is anywhere there's a clasp i want toreinforce it at least 2 more times, so 3 passes of thread total. so what we would do hereis just pass through those 6 15's again i usually have to take them 3 at a time, 3 onone side, 3 on the other, there's 3, another 3, and back through the loop. i'm going tolive dangerously and only do 1 pass of reinforcement, but do as i say and not as i do and go aheadand do another one for yourself. because now i wanna show you how i would end this threadoff. the answer is there's a lot of loose area in here so rather than just weaving backand forth on this particular project i do like to tie knots, and so i'm just going tofind a little spot where i've got thread already attaching beads together, i loop under thatthread, i pull down so i've got a little loop

left on this working thread, and then i pullthrough the loop. and when i pull through the loop i want to make sure that it's allclosing down in that same intersection i do not want it to loop over a bead, because thenyour thread will show over that bead. so i close down nice and slow, and i control itand there, now i've got that knot knotted in there nicely. then i move another couplebeads away and do the same thing. my rule of thumb is 2 to 3 knots when i'm doing thisso, loop under the thread that's already there, i swear there's one there, the smaller thisloop is when you go through it the less likely it is to prematurely knot on you, so go aheadand make that nice and small. make sure that it's all sitting in that same intersectionand then pull nice and slow so that you can

catch it if it's starts being a problem beforeyou've all of a sudden tightened down and then you're trying to get it out. and theni never cut off right where my knot is, i always move another couple of beads away,now i can cut that off, and that is ready to go. and then you'll just take, normallyyou would take your flat nose pliers, i'm going to kind of manhandle this and open thisloop up, there we go, oops. maybe i won't, hang on one sec. ok, these are round nosepliers, but they'll work. open that loop up, pop your jump ring in there, close that loop,and there we go, your earring is ready to go! and you actually have some options, itend to put these on the earring so that the size 8 seed beads portion of the earring shows,but if you like the size 15 side a little

bit better you can certainly pop that forward.more options for you, you don't have to make it quite this long, you can make them shorter,this particular earring i did with only 2 of the pearls, so some of you ladies who mightbe a little more petite might need a slightly smaller piece here, and then the other questionthat i get asked quite often is can i use crystals instead of pearls, and the answeris you betcha. so these are ones that i actually was wearing earlier, i unfrocked myself, andso the crystals, 6mm crystals work just perfectly in this piece also. so that is our whirlygigearrings and i hope you make a whole bunch of them. be sure and tell me that you likethe earrings by pressing that little like button there and subscribe to the channel.please feel free to come friend me on facebook,

show me what you're making off of these videos,i love to see what you're doing. thank you so much for spending time with me, have fun!