Copper Vine Earring Tutorial

Today I thought I would share a tutorial with you. Well, actually, I wanted to share it yesterday, but yesterday ended up being a catch-up day. I'm almost completely caught up so here's the tutorial.

This tutorial will show you how to make a design of mine that I used to sell before I moved into metalsmithing. It's very easy and it's more sculpture than jewelry making. You can make these earrings larger or smaller. I am also going to tell you how to make the earwires to go with them. Don't worry about tools either. The only thing you'll need is a pair of wire cutters, pliers, copper wire, and a pen(I'll explain that later.)

You are free to make these earrings as gifts, for yourself, as a giveaway on your blog. The only thing I ask is that you do not sell them, and you link back to me if they are on your blog.

Copper Vine Earrings


1. Cut a 12" piece of copper wire.

2. Fold it in half to double it up. You will probably have to use your pliers to make it nice and flat and the wires side by side.


3. Starting at the finished end, starting looping the wire into a circle. The best way to do this is start further from the end about .50"-.75". There should be about a .25" overhang.


4. Next sculpt the wire with your fingers into an S shape curve. This forms the belly of the earring. You want to stop when you only have about 2" of wire left.


5. Repeat step 3 for the top loop except with this overhang you will want it to point straight up for the next step.


6. At about halfway from the end of the wire, make another loop. This one you will want smaller because this is wear the earring will attach. Start this loop about .50" from the top of the last loop you just formed.

7. Once your loop is formed, just wrap the ends at the bottom of the loop. Make sure they are tight.

8. Cut off the excess wire with your wire cutters.

9. When making the second earring, just remember to reverse the design.

Ear Wires

1. Cut about 3" of wire.

2. With just the tip of your pliers, bend the tip of the wire back to meet the rest of the wire.


3. Make another, slightly larger loop the same way going in the opposite direction.


4. Here's where the pen comes in. Put the base of the loop so it sits flush on the side of the pen.


5. Wrap the rest of the wire around the pen until it touches the loop.

6. Where it touches the loop, take your pliers and put a slight bend in the wire.

7. Cut the wire about .50" from the bend. You can now remove the earwire from the pen.

8. You can open the earwire a little to make it a little larger if you'd like.

9. To attach the earwire to the earring, pull the larger loop slightly from the wire and slip the earring on. Then push the loop back.


10. Just use a little sand paper to smooth the ends and you're all done.

There you have it. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me. I'm hoping to have a pdf version available for download soon. I'll also try to fix the pics. I think my camera is giving up the ghost. If you have any suggestions for future tutorials, I'd love to hear them as well.

Do you think I should have a giveaway for this pair? Hmmm.