Around here I am kind of known as the “cluster earring girl”.  I guess you could say it’s my signature. I just love to make earrings that resemble little bundle of grapes!  Anytime I see a new bead, be it a keishi freshwater pearl or a hematite cube, I imagine, how would those look in cluster dangling from my ear?

Cluster Earrings with Cubic Zirconia Briolettes and Rainbow Sparkly Glass

I am going to show you how to make a basic cluster, using some sparkly glass beads.  Once you get the basic “formula” down, the possibilities are really endless, and the results are always beautiful!  You can embellish this style by adding charms, graduating the size of the beads, or mixing different materials.  Clusters can be at the top of the earring, nested above a delicately wire-wrapped briolette, or they can be hanging from a focal bead or metal connector.

There are only a couple of steps to follow when it comes to making this type of earring.

Step 1. Choose a bead that has a size anywhere from about 3mm to 8mm.  You can use a round, cube, chip, or rondelle shape;  both smooth or faceted beads will work.  Depending on how long you want the earrings you will need anywhere from 5 to 21 beads per earring.

Hemetite Cubes, Freshwater Pearls, Sparkly Glass Rounds and Rondelles

Step 2. Choose head pins. My favorite are ball-end, but any head pins will work. If you are doing a simple loop, 1″ headpins are long enough. If you would like to try a wrapped loop you will want 1.5″ or longer.

Ball end head pins are my favorite!

Step 3.   Assemble your cluster pieces. Do this by putting one bead onto every headpin and securing with a loop. You can do a simple loop or for a fancier look try a wrapped loop.  Use side-cutters to clip any excess wire and chain nose pliers to tuck the extra wire. Assemble all the beads on head pins, before you assemble the earrings.

Place beads on head pins first.

You will need side cutters to clip the excess wire

On the left are wrapped loops, on the right are simple loops. Either will work for this style of earring.

Step 4.  Once you have all of your pieces made, you can begin assembling the clusters. To do this you will need jump rings. Smaller jump rings will create a tighter cluster, larger jump rings will make a looser, more airy cluster.  I follow a very basic pattern for the assembly. On the first jump ring, place only one looped head pin.  Add a jump ring and two more head pins, one on each side. Continue, forming a chain until you reach your desired length.

Attach one beaded head pin to a jump ring

Attach a second jump to the first jump ring and place two more beaded head pins

Keep building your cluster!

I used eleven beads on each earring.

Step 5. Attach ear wires! I sometimes I add one more looped head pin to the ear wire itself, though this step is not necessary. It’s that simple!  (p.s. the earring wires I used are niobium! They are great for sensitive ears and will match your antique copper and antique brass earring designs!)

Attach earring wires and you are done! These completed earrings are the exact same, except one has small jump rings and one has larger jump rings.

 Examples of Cluster Style Earrings

 Well, I hope you enjoyed my tutorial For more designs with “Cluster Stlye” check out the design gallery at our online store, Rings-things.com.  If you have any questions about the beads I used for any of these earrings please leave a comment and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible! Happy Beading!

Tiffany @ The Rings and Things Showroom

Other great how-to blogs:

How to Wire-Wrap a Briolette

How to Make Wrapped Leather Bracelets

How to Dap and Dome Metal

I’m not one to exaggerate, but really, we’ve got a bazillion new metal beads in our online store! Most of them have large holes, too – perfect for all the leather and Pandora-style jewelry that is so popular these days.

Whether you prefer antiqued silver, antiqued brass or antiqued copper in your jewelry designs, there are tons of new bead options with strong geometric shapes, fancy details and great textures. A few of my favorites include:

New summery flower beads in antiqued brass and silver.

Tube beads and other unique shapes with hammered texture.

I don’t know exactly what this will end up being, but these chunky tube beads told me they wanted to be strung on leather with our new larger-hole shell pearls.  We shall see!

The future of this piece is a mystery at this point!

Finally, here are a pair of earrings Toni made. What a great go-with-everything design! For variety, it would be easy to add a splash of color or sparkle by capping the dotty tube beads with small gemstones or crystals.

West Yin earrings.

Do metal beads inspire you to add bright colors or to keep in neutral? I would love to hear what kind of combinations you come up with! ~ Cindy

Thanks to a couple hundred of you guys for jumping in on our latest Design Challenge: brushed copper beads!  *And welcome to you visitors from the Rings & Things News Flash email!*

From the dozen or so brushed copper bead recipients, Rings & Things received dozens of awesome photos showing what they designed.

Back view (showing the round disk bead)

The grand prize winner is Kym Hunter! Kym built this simple but wonderful ring.

Front view (showing the flower bead)

We loved the simplicity, cleverness and cuteness of Kym’s ring!  Besides two brushed copper beads (puffed flower and striped disk), Kym used just a couple of pieces of felt and some copper wire–to great effect.

BOOKMARK THIS PAGE!
GET INTO OUR NEXT CONTEST
…to be announced very very soon…

See Kym’s other brushed-copper bead creations at the original Design Challenge blog post.  They’re in a photo gallery there with everyone else’s entries.

Don’t miss out!  You’ll find jewelry there like Melissa Meman’s drape earrings, inventively using the small brushed disk beads  (which she oxidized) as vertical design elements .

I promise you’ll have a great time browsing the photos  Thanks for sending a friend the link, to share & enjoy!

Lucerna, a definite staff pick!

These new Lucerna crystals by Swarovski, stock #05-030-08-, are stunning!

I am sure no picture can capture their lantern-like brilliance.  (I’m trying, though.)  Here’s a line sketch, to illuminate how neat their shape is:

When first thumbing through all the great beads & things in our new supplement, I totally overlooked these beauties.

The other day a customer brought the Lucernas to my attention, and ever since, I can’t get them off my mind.

When you get these “Swarovski 5030″ crystals* in your hand and see all the rectangular facets sparkling back at you, they are hard to resist.

My mind is already racing with numerous ideas of how these treasures can be incorporated into fabulous pieces of jewelry.

Thank you Swarovski, this Lucerna crystal shape is a keeper!

–Amy in the Rings & Things showroom

* As we insiders call them