Guest blog - Amy teaches us how to make little duck earrings

For my birthday last year, my friend Amy, with Old West Leather and Beads in Greeley, made me the cutest chicken earrings.  I get so many fun compliments on them.  I asked her to create a How To for us!  

The originals!

 "Spring calls for a new project …. and this one is simple and oh so fun!  I love these little duck beads, but couldn't decide what to do with them.  Then I thought, what do ducks need?  Water, of course!  And we have this cool blue SoftFlex craft wire …. since I like working with wire in my projects, this was a perfect fit.  Here's the step by step to make these little duckie earrings. Happy Spring!" - Amy

Supplies:

•  2 glass duck beads
• 36 inches of 22ga SoftFlex craft wire in Pacific Blue
• 2 gold ear wires
• round nose pliers
• flush cutters
• chain nose pliers

Step by step:

1. Cut 36 inches of your 22ga wire with your flush cutters.
2. Smooth the wire as much you can, then fold in half.
3. In the center of your bent wire, take your chain nose pliers and squeeze gently to get the fold as tight as possible. *Remember that colored wire can scratch and the color come off, so be gentle with your pliers!
4. Take the ends of your wire, bend at 90º about 1/2” or just a bit more from the end, and make your loop for the earwires, using your round nose pliers.
5. Take the folded end of your wire and run it through one of your duck beads from top to bottom.  Your earwire loop will be sitting on the top of your bead.
6. From the bottom side of your bead, bend your wire again so it lays flat against your bead. From here you want to start forming a spiral.  You are not forming a tight spiral, this just helps give you a base for your duck to sit on. I don't recommend using pliers for this, just use your fingers and thumb to hold the wire in place.
7. You want to spiral the wire out around the duck, I prefer to keep the wire fairly close to the bead, but not tight.  After about 2 times around the bead, take a loose wrap on one of the wires and continue wrapping in the same fashion until you get to the end of your wire.  
8. At the very end of your wire, wrap tightly around one of your wires 2 wraps.  I recommend using your flat nose pliers to wrap the end.This will secure your end so it won't come undone.  Now you can “make waves” in your wire.  Bend gently with your fingers to form as you wish.
9. Add your earwire.  Done!

Here's a collage of some of the beautiful things that Amy has made!  

I also included a link to her Etsy page, find a bit of inspiration.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/CowGirlGemz

Do you want to learn more about wire wrapping?  Take a wire wrapping class!  They're really neat and the skills are great to add into your jewelry making or to have a new fun hobby.  To take classes in Northern Colorado visit Amy at Old West Leather and Beads.  To take wire wrapping classes in our Denver location, visit us at The Colorado Bead Co.