https://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/cascading-diamond-earrings • Posted by Conn
After finals week ended, my roommate and I hit the mall for some retail therapy. For me it was merely window shopping, but my roommate managed to find some jewelry that she liked. After buying quite a few pairs of earrings (two sets and two individual ones...), she swore off buying any more... until we came across these clever ones at Charming Charlie (http://www.charmingcharlie.com/perla-dangle-earrings.html#color=silver). They were nicely interwoven for a herringbone-weave-esk look, but she was set in her resolve against another purchase. Even so, I liked them enough to snap a picture and surprise her with a wire version as a gift.
After finals week ended, my roommate and I hit the mall for some retail therapy. For me it was merely window shopping, but my roommate managed to find some jewelry that she liked. After buying quite a few pairs of earrings (two sets and two individual ones...), she swore off buying any more... until we came across these clever ones at Charming Charlie (http://www.charmingcharlie.com/perla-dangle-earrings.html#color=silver). They were nicely interwoven for a herringbone-weave-esk look, but she was set in her resolve against another purchase. Even so, I liked them enough to snap a picture and surprise her with a wire version as a gift.
Cut off 8 inches of your thicker wire and fold it in half.
If you have never tried wire weaving, fear not; the pattern for this is quite simple. The major problem for this project is not inexperience; instead, it'll be finger fatigue and pain. Your fingers will inevitably hurt after some time, so be sure to take breaks when your fingers are sore. You'll need to weave between 3 inches of the top and bottom halves of your wire. The pattern consists of wrapping the wire around the top half of the thicker wire three times and then wrapping around both top and bottom pieces of thick wire twice. Make sure that your wrapping is nice and tight!
Weave the wires until you have 3 inches woven.
Make a bend about 0.75" away from the tip of your woven wire. Make the bend by curving the wire around your finger at an angle so that the two halves after your fold are not in line.
You should end up with this.
Make another bend about 0.75" away from your first bend, again curving the wire around a finger at an angle.
Do that one final time for a total of three bends so that you end up with the diamond shape. At this point, the diamond should NOT be two dimensional; your corners must be bent so that there are two sets of parallel sides that are at different heights due to the curving.
The shape of the diamonds was difficult for me to master, especially with mere pictures to work from, so I added more pictures to help you visualize the shape you are trying to achieve. This pair of opposite sides are curved upward around my finger shown here, and the other pair of opposite sides curve the opposite side.
I'm holding the top of the diamond, and the picture is looking down on the curves.
Cut off your loose wire and clamp down HARD on the ends to hide them securely. Take one of your ends of the thick wire and curve it down into a loop centered in the middle of the diamond. Trim off excess wire from that loop.
Then take the other end of the thick wire and curve it upward in another loop centered in the middle of the diamond. Again, trim off excess wire.
Use your pliers or fingers to rotate the top loop 90 degrees so that it lies perpendicular to the plane of the diamond.
Make two of the diamonds as described before. For the third and final one, instead of curving both ends of the thick wire in opposite directions to form two loops, curve both of them upward to form a single loop
Take the two diamonds with two loops opposite to one another (as opposed to only one loop) and insert one into the other as shown.
Hook the top loop of one diamond into the bottom loop of the other like so. Make sure the diamonds nestle nicely!
Insert the leg of the third diamond into both of the other two like so.
Hook the top of the third diamonds to the lower loop of the second diamond. And that's one earring!
Make another set of three diamonds for the second earring of the pair.
For the earring hooks, begin by taking your spool of wire and making a sharp bend about 2.5" down. Bend until the end of the wire is parallel to the rest of the wire, and cut so that you have a piece of wire with two parallel 2.5 pieces (like a long, sharp U). Shape the wire into the shape of regular earring wires (use an online picture or another pair of earrings) -- shape BOTH parallel wires at once so that they are identical.
Then cut about 0.75" down from the last bend. If you like, add beads and whatnot to decorate the hook, so long as you end it with a loop for attaching the three diamonds.
Finished hooks!
Connect your woven diamonds to your earring hooks, and voila; a special pair of earrings to gift or flaunt yourself.