LL Roden Jewelry: Simple Dangle Earrings

A friend mentioned that she'd really like to have some earring made from Rose Quartz. That got me digging out my supply of rose quartz and making several pairs of earrings. Here's the process for making a pair of simple dangle earrings. I've found out that it's really tricky photographing the process while doing the work. Since I was photographing as I go you'll also get to see my messy work area in the background.

Below is some of my rose quartz stash. I have finished nuggets, chips - large & small and various other shapes.

To make earrings you need earring findings as well as the pretty stones or beads. For these earrings I'll use silver head pins and silver ball post earrings with a loop for attaching the earrings. I've also used some silver, flower shaped bead caps and tiny silver spacer beads. To attach the earrings to the post you'll need a couple split jump rings.

To begin I added the following things to the head pin. 1 silver ball, 1 bead cap, 1 large faceted quartz nugget, 1 bead cap, 1 small silver ball, 1 small faceted quartz nugget and finally another silver ball.

Once everything is on the head pin I used my chain nose pliers to make a 90 degree bend in the head pin.

Then I used my round nose pliers to make a loop in the head pin.

After making the loop I used my bent nose pliers to hold the loop so I could use my chain nose pliers to make wrapped loops with the remaining wire of the head pin. Carefully make the loops parallel and tight to each other.

After several wraps use wire cutters to trim the remaining wire close to the wraps and press the end down tight to the head pin.

To attach the earring to the ball post open a jump ring and slip on the earring and the loop of the ball post. I use the smallest jump ring possible that will still allow some movement of the earring. To open and close jump rings use two pairs of pliers, one on either side of the opening of the jump ring, and use a back and forth motion instead of pulling the opening of the ring apart. Make sure to close the jump ring so there is no gap.