Making hoop earrings is a great way to expand your jewellery making repertoire, even if you’re just starting out in the jewellery making industry and looking to broaden your designs. Not only can you experiment with different colours, but customised shapes can also make your hoop earrings stand out from the crowd.
Find out how to make hoop earrings in four easy steps. We’ll be exploring how to make hoop earrings with 20 gauge wire in silver, but there’s no reason why you can’t take your learnings and apply them to a different colour or design.
Step 1: Outline your hoop size
For anyone who has ever wondered how to make wire hoops, it really is simple. Start by taking your wire and wrapping it around your cylindrical tool, whether you’ve opted for a ring mandrel or dowel. Make sure the wire is wrapped tightly in order to form a strong shape.
Handy tip: you don’t have to use a jewellery tool for creating your hoop shape. If you’re wondering how to make hoop earrings out of wire, and you want to create extra large hoops, why not choose a 2 litre bottle? Or even a soup can? As long as you can wrap the wire tightly, any cylindrical object will work.
Step 2: Cut your wire
It’s important to protect your eyes when cutting wire, as loose pieces could fly off towards you. Once you’re happy with your hoop size, carefully remove the wire from your cylindrical object and cut the excess away using your flush cutters, making sure to leave an overlap of approximately 2cm. You’ll need this overlap to create the fastening.
Step 3: Create your hoop fastening
Using your round nose pliers, grip one end of the wire and carefully wrap it around the pliers, taking care not to add too much pressure to the wire. Once you’ve formed a small loop, take your chain nose pliers and gently bend the other end of your wire into an upwards “L” shape. This is where the wire will sit in place once fastened, so make sure that the mechanism works effectively and does not slip out of place.
Step 4: Hammer the wire
Taking your repousse hammer (or chasing hammer), gently hammer the wire to flatten it slightly. This strengthens the shape and will give your creation a nice finishing touch. But be careful – you don’t want to hammer into the fastening you’ve just made!
Touch-up tip: you could even use a standard nail file and buff the edges of your hoops. This works well if you’re creating hexagonal hoops with sharper edges. If you’re looking to add some different textures to your designs, our range of texture hammers will help you create the look you want to achieve.
So there you have it – how to make your own hoop earrings in just four simple steps. Making hoop earrings is a great way to get creative with your jewellery making, especially if you experiment with hexagonal hoops, or even contrasting sizes. What will you make next?
Cooksongold