Earrings -an Introduction to various styles of beaded earring designs

Beaded earrnngs are very popular, and can come in a remarkably wide range of styles. This article is about introducing you to that variety, to help inspire you in creating your own designs, to make your own unique jewellery.

The simplest type is where one large bead is used as a pendant hanging directly from the ear fitting, known as a single pin earring, as only one headpin has been used in the design, example, top left. Also in the same picture, an example where several beads have been stacked on the same pin, in a tapering design.

Then, we move on to "articulated" styles, where one pin is hung off another,with beads attached, in a daisy chain fashion, the most popular being the double pin stlyle, main picture..

You can go on in this fashion, with three or more links, although they will start to get a bit long! Three is usual the best number for this syle, and it's best to use quite small beads, Left.

But there are other ways of approaching hanging beads on to earhooks, you can hang several different bead pendants directly off the hook, to give a cluster style, left, or even use  chain to make a "bunch of grapes" effect., bottom left. There are as many ways of being creative with earring designs as there are beads, practically.

To find out how to make beads into pendants, see the related artticle, turning loops. Follow this link:

www.rockingrabbit.co.uk/node/4768

. This technique can also be used for making pendants for charm bracelets and making daisy chain links for necklaces. You should also have a look at Design Secrets, to see what classix shapes work best for earring design.