Affordable Tutorials (2) Inspiration with simple Tutorial - Heart Hoop Earrings

love cymbal earrings ($80.00) on Uncommongoods

I've always been fascinated with hoop earrings. Of course I myself know how hard it is to make one really good. This pair of heart hoop earrings I found from uncommongoods.com. The materials they used are brass, nickel, bronze, guitar string,and steel. However, I think a beginning jeweler can easily pull this off with $10.00 or less.

First, lets look at the materials, and I think we can even make all the brass colored areas gold filled, and it STILL will be MUCH cheaper than $80.00.

Materials
2 heart shaped pendant (similar)
12 inch 49 strand soft flex beading wire, silver (see here, or at your local craft store)
2 10 inch 24 gauge wire gold filled (or base metal) (found here or at your local craft store)

The reason I think 49 strand soft flex is good for this is because we are trying to achieve a perfect circle by relying on the beading wire itself. There is no need to bend the wire, of course you can't bend 49 strand wire and not kink it. The more strands there are in the soft flex, the more flexible they are, and the less likely they are going to kink and not look smooth. This is what we are trying to achieve.

You can first make the hoop with the soft flex beading wire. Braid them like you would braid someone's hair with three strand interlace with each other.
Then, take the 24 gauge gold wire, wrap it around the ends of the soft flex wire to close it up. Make sure to make a wire wrapped loop on the top to attach ear wires, and make a loop on the bottom to attach to the heart pendant.

Now you've made a pair of cute $80 worth earrings all by yourself under $10! Easy and affordable. I think that's what we look for every day in life.

Readers, what are some of your easy and affordable solutions?