DIY Hammered Octopus Earrings

HELLO! How are you all today?



I'm doing a tutorial with octopi, but really you can do any design you want! I have a lot of practice with wire and beading stuff, but even without that these are pretty easy.

• Wire: as you can see, the gauge of the wire isn't a problem for me. Regardless, I bought size 20 wire, which will fit in a normal earring hole.
• Pliers
• Pen and paper
• Things to shape wire with (crochet hooks and plastic rod)
• An entertaining puppy *NECESSITY*

The earrings you see way up there ^ are made of only one piece of wire each. Using the pen and paper, draw your design using (basically) one line. If you can't draw your design in one line without picking up the pen, then you can't bend one piece of wire correctly into the design.

Start the earring with the hook at the top. The hook will face a different way than the rest of the earring so that the design faces forward. To make the point on the end of the leg truly pointy, crease the wire, then crease the opposite way like in the picture.

To make the eyes, I used the round end of a crochet hook. Crease the wire at a 90 degree angle and curl the wire around your "shape".

With an octopus, make one leg exaggerated and long..Trust me..Do it..

Cut the wire free of the roll! Leave about an inch or so hanging.

Wrap the hanging wire around the hook, finishing your octopus. Technically, you can be done now! If you have gotten this far, the hard part is over!...

 

...BUT! Personally I like the hammered look better, and it makes the earring look more finished. Before you start hammering, I would suggest playing witht he wire a bit and get it bent into the design you really want. Once the wire is hammered, it is difficult to bend it without breaking it.

 

• Hammer
• Earrings
• Floor, or a hard surface that is safe to hammer into. No freezers, no tables, and DEFF no pillows, thatd just be dumb.

Bend the hook back so you don't hammer it. Then, hammer the wire unti lit is flat. DON'T OVER-HAMMER! You want the wire to be flat, but you don't want to break or distort it.

 

With that, you have earrings! Enjoy (: