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Hi this is Julie with beadaholique.com
and today I want to show you how to use ear threaders. I'm going to make a pair earrings
as well
so an ear threader is basically a piece of chain
with a post on the end and this post goes through your ear
and then it hangs like so and actually I have made one earring here so you can see
how it would hang
so the backside would be coming out of the back side of your ear, the side of
the post
and this would be a the front side. It's really quite pretty
this is one style ear threader. It just has a longer length of
chain with a post on the end and then the other style actually has this
arc as well. It's got the post
the arc and then long chain in the front. So a couple things I wanna talk to you
about first about keeping in mind when you're working with these
the main thing is you have to be aware the that diameter of the actual chain and the post
and then the diameter of the bead hole of what you're looking to use
and those are sometimes listed in listings and sometimes they're not
I wanna give you just a general overview of kinda what's gonna work
and what's not gonna work and then we'll make that earring. I have a four
millimeters SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS
bicone and you can see what happens. It gets stuck. It doesn't go all the way
down
and I'm going to go up to the next size which is a five-millimeter
and that one slides on
just fine and a 6 millimeter
does as well. So 5 millimeter and the 6 millimeters are gonna work
on these type of ear threaders that just have the chain in the post
I have a size 10/0 Miyuki Delica
and that one with a little coaxing it
goes on but it's a tight fit. I wouldn't count on that working every time
and then if that doesn't work an 11/0 it's
definitely not going to work. It's not going to slide down but these spacers
are going to work great. You can tell that they've got a large enough hole
Of course I'm not making a beautiful earring right here. I just want to show what
will and won't work
I have a little SWAROVSKI ELEMENT four millimeter faux pearl
that's not gonna work but I do you have a four millimeter
round Czech glass bead which works just fine
I got this Rondelle here
which is gonna go on fine as well and then I've got these pearls
and you can tell already that their hole is quite small and that's actually
not even going on my post
so I would avoid pearls and also probably as a general rule
avoid gemstones as well. Their holes can be quite tiny
as well. So that's an overview
also keep in mind how heavy it is, the item that you put in here because this is
going to thread through
your ear. You don't want so much weight here that it just pulls it right
through. So keep that in mind as well. So just kinda recap
in general four millimeter bicones and faux pearls are
probably going to be out, so are the natural pearls
the gemstones as well but a 5 millimeter bicone, 5 millimeter
round bead
a 6 millimeter, those are gonna work well, a size 10/0 seed beads
maybe we'll work sometimes, maybe won't work other times. If you go larger than that
you can probably count on them working
just make sure you compare the size of the chain
and the post diameter with the hole diameter. So that's when you're using
this type of ear threader. Now if you've got one like this
it actually gets even trickier. Watch what happens, remember that six
millimeter
bicone went on totally fine before. It gets stuck, it won't go up
over the curve. Basically the only type of object that's going to up and over is
something with a really larger hole and a much narrower
profile such as this little spacer bead so that has no problem just going
up and over but if you love all these
other types of beads that don't fit
over the threader you actually have usually
in many cases with these ear threaders a little loop at the base
and that's gonna allow you to use all these other type of beads you want to
use. That was a quick overview. I hope that wasn't too much information but I
did just want to give you kind of a general guideline
if you're going to be making projects with these ear threaders, what will and
won't work
but now I want to show you how to make this earring and it's so easy and so quick
so the tools you're gonna need is a pair of flush cutters,
chain nose pliers and either round nose pliers or
wirelooping pliers like I have here and then you're going to also need a
head pin. I have a ball head pin just to be a little bit more decorative
To make this we're gonna start by taking a four millimeter
bicone. Again remember this is the one that wouldn't fit that on the
actual ear threader chain that is gonna fit fine here on the head pin
and I'm just going to create a simple wire loop
right after the bead and I'm using my wirelooping pliers
squeezing, wrapping it around
got my loop, snip it
and I'm just going to go ahead and straighten it up with my chain nose
I'm going to take my ear threader
I'm going to put a 6 millimeter bicone
on it. Let that slide down to the bottom. Put one of these great
spacers and do one more 6 millimeter bicone
that was so easy and now I'm just going to attach my dangle at the base
open up that simple loop
connect it to the loop on my ear threader
close it up. Make sure that that's nice and straight
I'm done with my earring. Now I have a great
earring set which would be perfect for the holidays or
bridesmaids, anything you like. It's a really easy and elegant pair of earrings
and you can actually find all the ingredients for this particular pair of
earrings on beadaholique.com in our free project section and look under
earrings.
Go to www.beadaholique.com to purchase beading supplies and to get design ideas!