Earrings with Carnelian Teardrop Beads and Sterling Silver Wireworking

Cut the following lengths of wire:

• Use a flush cutter to cut one loop of 14-gauge sterling silver half-hard round wire. The ends should abut each other, making a circle with no space between the ends
• One 3-inch length of 18-gauge sterling silver full-hard twisted square wire
• Three 9-inch lengths of 24-gauge sterling silver dead-soft round wire

Apply a very small amount of sterling silver solder paste to the seam (the seam of what? The 6mm jump ring?). Shape it all the way around the seam with a clean fingertip, patting it down evenly. The cleaner the solder is applied, the more likely you will get an invisible seam at the end of the process.

Place the ring in the center of a firing block.

Put on safely goggles, tie back hair and loose clothing and make sure your work surface is free of flammable items. Then fire the ring with a small butane torch at the seam until the solder flows.

Let it cool and pickle the ring in a small crock on low, using Sparex® dry acid pickle compound and water. Remove the ring from the pickle and rinse it with clean water.

Sand all the surfaces of the ring to smooth out the seam until it is invisible. Use a file if a sanding pad isn’t working. If there is still a gap in the seam, repeat Steps 2 and 3.

Finish sanding with a medium grit sanding pad working in one direction in long strokes to apply a brushed finish. Use a medium grit sanding swab for inner curves if needed. 

Thread a carnelian teardrop bead onto one of the 9-inch 24-gauge wires. Let a 1-inch tail come through. Cross the long tail and the 1-inch tail over the top of the bead. Wrap the short tail once around the long tail, then cut off the excess short tail. 

Just above the first wrap, make a wrapped loop with the remaining tail. Then keep wrapping the wire down over the holes in the bead, creating a messy briolette wrap. Next, bring the tail up over the wraps and wrap around the loop once. Cut off the excess wire and tuck in the tail.

Repeat to make a second wrapped carnelian teardrop.

Open a 6mm sterling silver jump ring and add on the soldered ring, a 14mm 18-gauge sterling silver textured soldered round jump ring, the loop of one of the wrapped carnelian teardrops and the loop of a 18mm 22-gauge sterling silver marquise carnelian ear wire. 

Close the jump ring to create the top of the earring.

Repeat Step 5 to make a third carnelian teardrop.

Center the 3-inch length of twisted sterling silver wire on the larger barrel of Wubbers® Designer Mandrel extra-large round mandrel pliers. Curve the ends of the wire equally around the barrel to achieve a U shape with the bottom of the U being the size of the larger barrel. Use the larger barrel of Wubbers small bail-making pliers to make a simple loop at one end of the wire. Make sure it is facing so the loop will “hook” over the soldered ring.

Slide the remaining wrapped carnelian teardrop over the free end of the U. Then finish the free end of the U with a simple loop.

Open the loops on the U and attach it to the bottom of the soldered ring, then close the loops.

Repeat Steps 1 – 8 for the second earring.