Making my own ear cuffs is something I have wanted to try for a while. My first attempt was without any tutorials or guidance. As such, it came out as a bit of a disaster. It would not sit well on my ear, and it looked amateur at best.
I needed a bit of help, so I turned to the internet. I stumbled across a wonderful tutorial by Rena Klingenberg posted on jewelrymakingjournal.com. You can see the full tutorial here: Wire Ear Cuff with Changeable Dangles (Tutorial)
Rena's Ear Cuff
Rena lists all the tools and materials you need. So be sure to check it out. I followed her tutorial on making my first proper ear cuff so that I could get a better understanding of how to make one. Here is how it went!
The first step was to cut a piece of craft wire, 10.2 cm or 4" long. Then mark the measurements as indicated. Use a permanent marker if you have one. I didn't and it rubbed off, while I was working with the wire, so I had to remeasure 😅. If you are worried about the marks on the cuff afterwards, I am fairly sure a little bit of rubbing alcohol will get rid of them.
Step 3 was to bend the wire at the first mark. You need round nose pliers for this. As you can see, mine is a bit rusty, but it got the job done. Grip the wire at the point where you marked and gently bend both ends downwards to make the shape. Don't grip the pliers too hard, or you will end up with marks on your wire. The wire is very soft!
Step 4 is to repeat the same process at the second measurement marking but in the opposite direction. Pretty simple!
You should now have something resembling the first photo below!
Step 5 gets a tiny bit more tricky. You need to grip the very edge of the short bend and curl it back on itself with the round nose pliers. This isn't only to make it look cool, but it is also to make sure there is no pointy wire edge that can poke your ear.
Step 6 is similar to Step 5. You begin by gripping the very edge of the wire and slowly bend it back in on itself. Then move the pliers along and bend it a bit more, which you continue to do to create the spiral. If you are looking for a better explanation and photos, please do visit Rena Klingenberg's tutorial!
Rena also does a fantastic job explaining how this ear cuff will be for your left or right ear, depending on how you bend it for the last step. It comes down to which side you make the shorter 'wing' face.
The last step is rounding the cuff to fit onto your ear. 
I wanted this to be on my right ear, so I made sure the short 'wing' is on the right side. You need something round to bend the cuff over. At first, I made use of a fabric pencil (it was on the table close at hand) but it was too narrow. So I picked up a marker and used that instead.
You place your thumb over the cuff and bend the wings around the marker. Please excuse my ugly, dirty nails, haha! Now you have your ear cuff. In order to put it on, you can bend it slightly open, slip it onto your ear, and then bend it closed a little to make sure it is secure. You don't have to bend it tightly, that will only end up hurting you. It is just meant to sit there lightly without falling off.
And here you can see it on my ear. No piercings are needed to wear this ear cuff, and I was pleasantly surprised at how comfortable it is. In fact, I could not even feel that it was there. At one point later during the day, I thought I had misplaced it, only to remember I was still wearing it!
Now that I had the basic idea of how to make an ear cuff and how they attach to your ear, I decided it was time to be adventurous and try making me own design!
PixelHunterSam's First Design
The first thing I did was sketch out a rough idea for a design with a pencil on paper. This also helped me get a better idea of the length of wire I will need.
As you can see from the concept, I am making use of the base design of Rena's ear cuff, but decided I wanted to add a little more 'bling' by including some beads into it.
I repeated the first 5 steps in Rena's tutorial (as shown and explained above) but with the difference of having used a longer section of wire. The total length was 15 cm. The markings though, were in the same place as I wanted to maintain the final 'wing' size.
*Step 6 *is bending back the long section, in line with where the curled upper section is, same as before. But from here on, we divert from the original ear cuff quite a bit. Instead of bending it parallel to the rest, I kept it at a 90-degree angle. This is because of the following step.
In Step 7, I took a thinner craft wire and wrapped it around the base of the bend three times. I did this because I did not want the beads I plan on adding to be sliding around. This will stop them from slipping further down and keep them in place.
In Step 8, I cut the thinner wire a similar length to the long unbent piece. You will see the reason for this shortly. Now it was time for the fun part of picking out what beads I want to add. I chose some blue and silver beads!
For Step 9, I slipped the first bead, a silver one, onto the thick wire. Then making use of the thinner wire, I wrapped it around the bead and then around the thick wire to secure it in place. I repeated the same process with the remainder of the beads I wanted to put onto the ear cuff. Five beads in total.
In Step 10, I did three wraps after the last bead. You can see there is a bit of the thin wire left. I used a cutter to snip it off. Be sure to press down the end of the thin wire so that it is flat and does not run the risk of scratching or poking your ear.
For Step 11, I began to complete the remainder of the design, by bending back the leftover length of the thick wire.
If you have been observant, you would have seen that the design has deviated a little from my initial design sketch. This is because the beads took up more space than I anticipated. But this is all a learning experience.
For Step 12, I rolled the remaining length of the thick wire into a spiral. As I did in Step 6 of the first ear cuff.
And then the final step, Step 13, is shaping the wings over the marker. As you can see with this cuff, I decided to make it a left ear cuff, and have the beads and spiral facing upwards. This was because I have an ear piercing in my lower ear, and this ear cuff would have interfered with it if I wanted to wear both at the same time.
Here is what it looks like on my ear!
So there you have it! It was my first attempt at working with craft wire to make jewellery and I think the results were pretty cool! I hope my descriptions and instructions are clear enough to allow you to try this out yourself if you'd like to.
Things to keep in mind:
- This is craft wire, which is probably plated. If you have sensitive skin that reacts to costume jewellery, you should probably avoid wearing these. I did not notice any discolouration after wearing them for quite a few hours, but it's something to be aware of.
- The craft wire is very soft, so you will need to store these cuffs carefully to avoid squashing and bending them out of shape.
I hope to do a few more designs in the future. I am especially interested in figuring out how to do elf-like ear cuffs, which may end up as a future post if I manage to make a decent set. The possible designs are almost endless, from simple, to very complex. A quick internet search can provide you with a lot of inspiration.
Thank you for stopping by and having a look at this post! I hope it got your creative juices flowing! 🌻
Credits:
- Massive thanks to Rena Klingenberg and her tutorial: Wire Ear Cuff with Changeable Dangles (Tutorial) for showing me the ropes!
- All photos in this post were taken by me, and that is my ugly ear. Sorry about that! 😅