This warm weather has us in a beachy mood, so we decided to go beachcombing in our bead stash to make these Beachy Dangle Earrings! We gathered up a handful of seaside treasures perfect for this pretty pair of dangling, waterfall earrings. We paired the cute seahorse charm with a shell charm in the same gold finish. Then we mixed in some freshwater pearls, milk glass briolettes, moonstone rondelles, and faceted crystals. We’ll show you how to attach the pearls, crystals, and charms to the chain. So pretty!
How To Make These Beachy Dangle Earrings
Materials
Gold loop chain, 3” piece
Seahorse charm, gold, 16mm long, 7mm wide
Seashell charm, gold, 11.5mm long, 6mm wide
2 Milk glass briolettes, sea green, 8mm long, 5mm wide
2 Milk glass briolettes, aqua, 8mm long, 5mm wide
4 Freshwater pearls, potato shape, white, 3.6mm x 5mm
4 Freshwater pearls, coral, 3mm x 5.2mm
4 Faceted Moonstone rondelles, 3mm x 3.6mm
4 Round faceted crystals, peach, 3mm
2 Round faceted crystals, turquoise, 3mm
2 Faceted crystal rondelles, turquoise, 2mm x 2.6mm
2 Earring wires, gold
20 Headpins, gold, 1.5” long
26-Gauge wire, gold
TOOLS
Chain-nose pliers
Round-nose pliers
Wire cutters
Steps
1. To get started, cut the chain in half by cutting through the link at the center of the chain with the wire cutters. Throw the cut link away.
2. Feed an earring wire through the last link of one piece of chain. Press the loop on the earring wire closed with chain-nose pliers.
3. Attach the seashell charm to the bottom of the chain by making a bead component featuring a turquoise crystal rondelle. To do this, cut a piece of wire about 4” long. Make a wrapped loop at one end of the wire, feeding the loop through the last link of the chain before wrapping the loop. Slide on a turquoise crystal rondelle. Make a wrapped loop next to the crystal going through the loop at the top of the seashell charm before wrapping the loop.
Here’s a video we made showing how to make a wrapped loop. It’s easy once you get the hang of it!
4. Stretch the earring out on your work surface so you can see where you’d like to attach your beaded dangles as you make them. We started at the top of the chain and worked our way down toward the charm. For the first dangle, feed a round turquoise crystal onto a headpin and make a wrapped loop through the first link in the chain. Trim the end of the headpin wire using the wire cutters.
5. Skip a link in the chain and make another beaded dangle with a peach crystal using the same wrapped loop technique. This time, feed the loop through the other side of the chain link so it will hang on the opposite side of the turquoise crystal.
6. Skip another link in the chain and make a beaded dangle featuring a moonstone rondelle. Again, attach the beaded dangle to the other side of the chain so the beads will hang on alternating sides of the chain.
TIP: To create the cascading look, we made sure to go back and forth, hanging a beaded dangle on either side of the links in the chain. It helps to hold the earring up by the earring wire periodically to see where the beads naturally dangle before choosing where to hang your next dangle.
7. Attach a sea green briolette to the chain one link away from the moonstone dangle. To do this, cut a piece of wire about 4” long. Feed the briolette onto the wire and slide it to the middle. Bend both sides of the wire up against the angled top of the bead so the wire crisscrosses. Bend one wire at a 90-degree angle and the other wire straight up from the pointed top of the bead. Wrap the horizontal wire around the straight wire two times and trim the end. Make a wrapped loop at the top of the briolette, feeding the loop through a link in the chain. Wrap the end of the wire around the top of the briolette.
8. Use a headpin to attach a white freshwater pearl to the chain with a wrapped loop, followed by a coral freshwater pearl bead dangle.
9. Use the same technique as in step 7 to dangle a turquoise sea glass briolette from the chain.
10. Next, attach another white freshwater pearl, a peach crystal, then a moonstone rondelle to the chain using headpins and wrapped loops. Be sure to skip a link and switch sides of the chain each time you connect a new bead dangle.
11. Repeat to create the second earring featuring the seahorse charm at the bottom of the chain.
Aren’t these just lovely?! We love the look of the mismatched charms – so trendy! But you can make yours match. It’s up to you! Let us know what you think of these earrings. Would you make them matched or mismatched? Leave us a comment below.
Happy Crafting,
Jennifer & Kitty
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