DIY Fancy Ear Wires Jewellery Making Tutorial

Are you looking to make your own ear wires and give your earrings a stylish upgrade? In this easy, step-by-step jewellery making tutorial, I’ll show you how to create elegant, fancy ear wires that will make your handmade earrings truly stand out.

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These decorative ear wires pair beautifully with a wide range of earring styles and are a must have addition to your jewellery making repertoire. Perfect for beginner jewellery makers, this project only requires a few basic hand tools and a good eye for creating a matching pair.

Unlike plain ear wires, these are designed to be a feature in their own right. By turning your ear wires into a design element, you’ll elevate your earrings from ordinary to eye-catching, adding a touch of professional flair and lustre to your creations.

This ear wire tutorial is designed with sterling silver jewellery making in mind, as sterling silver is my favourite metal to work with! However, you can use whichever wire you prefer for your DIY earring components.

I always recommend practising the design first in a less expensive wire to perfect your technique before moving on to sterling silver. Copper wire is an excellent choice for practice, as it behaves very similarly to sterling silver while being much more affordable.

So let’s get started! Here is what you will need to make your fancy ear wires!

👉 You can find most of these supplies at Cooksongold which is my favourite for silver, jewellery tools and findings!

Step 1. To start, measure and cut 8cm of your 0.8mm silver wire. Use your nylon jaw pliers to straighten the wire.

Step 2. Place the very end of the wire in the round nose pliers and make sure it is in the same place for each ear wire made. *Tip* I have marked my round nose pliers in regular intervals with a pen so that my loops are always the same size. I have lined the wire up with the first mark on my pliers.

Step 3. Once you are happy with the placement use the pliers to make a loop.

Step 4. You will notice here that the loop made will not be fully circular and for some designs this is ok, but for this ear wire we want the loop to be nice and round. So here is a tip for you on how we get around this. Using your wire cutters, cut the end part of the loop which is still straight, then use your chain nose pliers to pull the wire back around into a circular loop. This is a small extra step, but I think its worth it to get the right look!

Step 5. Now that you have a nice round loop, place your wire with the looped end against a ruler and mark 0.5cm from the bottom.

Step 6. Use your round nose pliers to make a bend behind and up. The bend will need to be slightly bigger than the loop so I have used the second mark on my pliers. Using the same marks each time will help keep the ear wires the same size.

Step 7. Place the looped end against your ruler again and now mark 1.5cm up from the bottom.

Step 8. Place you wire on a wire mandrel using the 10mm section. Ensure the mark is in the middle facing you and the loop is closest to you. Bend the longer end around the back of the mandrel and you will start to see you ear wire shape forming!

Step 9. Now with the ear wire flat, mark the wire perpendicular to where the bottom of the bend sits, this is where we will make another bend.

Step 10. Use your chain nose pliers to bend the wire back a little. This gives the ear wires a professional look and will help to secure the ear wire in your ears.

Step 11. Before moving on to the next steps, repeat the steps above to get your second ear wire. Once you have your second ear wire you can line them up together over the wire mandrel and make sure the bends are as identical as they can be, then cut away the excess in the same place.

Step 12. Next you will need to work harden your ear wires, this will make the ear wires strong and will help keep its shape. Use your chasing hammer to start with to gently work harden and flatten down the ear wires on both sides. *Tip* The chasing hammer will actually flatten the wire if used with too much force so this must be done gently to retain the round shape of the wire.

Step 13. Then use the nylon mallet to work harden further. Using the nylon mallet will work harden without affecting the round shape of the wire.

Step 14. Once you are happy your ear wires are nice and strong, use a needle file at the ends of the ear wires to make it more comfortable for the wearer to put in their pierced ear. The idea is to get the end of the wire to be dome shaped and smooth. You can do this by filing up and over, going around the wire end.

Step 15. Your filing will have done the majority of the work, but using a wire rounder next will really smooth out the ends of the ear wires further. Once you have used the wire rounder, feel with your fingers if the end feels smooth. Decide if you would you be happy to put these ear wires through your ears? If not, repeat these filing steps as necessary.

Step 16. Once you are happy with the ends of the ear wires use your silver polishing cloth to polish and wipe away any marks you have made.

You will now have a lovely pair of fancy ear wires for your earrings!

You could play around with the sizes of the loops and curves of this design and see what other shapes you could make from this one. You could also make these in copper or gold and see how they look.

For these fancy ear wires, I have matched them with these fancy bead drops earrings below. I think these two work perfectly together, if I do say so myself! If you would like to make these earrings, see the tutorial on Fancy Bead Drop Earrings here.

Feel free to share this post and let me know what you think in the comments, I would love to hear about your results.

Happy ear wire crafting!

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