Tutorial - Primrose Hill earrings

The most recent earrings I made for the Earrings Challenge were a break from the norm for me - they used yellow! Yellow is a colour that I usually shy away from in my home, in my wardrobe and in my jewellery making, but a friend's lovely outfit the other week made me think again and inspired this combination of soft grey Picasso jasper and primrose yellow faceted glass with a new design for my Etsy shop - heart head pins. These earrings are lovely and quick and easy to make, so my post today shows you how to use a pair of fancy head pins to make your own summery pair!

You will need:

• One pair of decorative head pins with at least 5.5cm stems. Stems of 0.8mm wire are best as this thickness holds its shape well but still makes comfortable ear wires.
• Beads to decorate the stem.
• A crimp bead or squashable metal seed bead 
• Round pen barrel 
• Wire cutters 
• Crimping pliers or flat nosed pliers 
• Needle file or nail file 
• Hammer and bench block

 How to make them:

1. Thread the beads onto the head pins, finishing with the crimp bead or squashable seed bead.
2. Squash the crimp/seed bead it hold the larger beads in place.
3. Hold the head pins up against each other to check that they are the same length and trim if necessary.
4. File the ends of the wire smooth.
5. Bend the wires around the pen barrel to form an ear wire shape.
6. Hammer the front of the ear wires (being careful of the beads!) to strengthen them.
7. Enjoy wearing your new earrings!

To give you some more inspiration I've put together an Etsy treasury of lovely fancy head pins, including a few from the AJE team.

'Fabulous Fancy Head Pins' by daisychainjewellery

A collection of beautiful handcrafted head pins, perfect for earrings and charms!

Green Quan Yin Handmade Head... JeraLunaDesign... $10	Peacock Feather Headpins - ... humblebeads $16	Handmade Blue Glass Bead Lam... NValentineStud... $12	5 Teardrop Head Pins set. Bl... NadinArtGlass $8
Lampwork glass bead headpins... LoriLochner $38	Handmade bronze headpins, Ar... THEAElements $6	Sterling Silver Heart Head P... daisychainextr... $5.5	Red lampwork glass headpins,... ChristineHanse... $18
Handmade Copper Snakeskin Le... KristiBowmanDe... $15	Sterling Silver headpins, Ha... NadinArtGlass $9.2	TWO Bronze Blossom Headpins ... ktotten $12	Green Leaf Glass Headpins, H... LoriBergmann $18

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This is actually my last post as a member of the AJE blog team. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time on the team, and working with such a lovely, encouraging and talented group of women who are just as addicted to jewellery making as I am. However, my life, both personal and business, are moving at a crazy pace at the moment and a couple of things have had to give to allow me to keep up with everything. I will still be around lurking and commenting, and of course on my own blog, but thank you to everyone who has read and commented on one of my AJE posts!

Jo Tinley
Daisychain Designs