Fringe earrings are fun to make. It’s important to start with a good, clear pattern and, of course, which beads you’ll use. To draw your own pattern, you can find blank fringe earring patterns on Pinterest, for example, that you can color yourself. There are also countless ready-made patterns available for inspiration. For these earrings, we used Miyuki seed beads 11/0 and drew our own pattern.
Needed supplies:
- Miyuki needle
- Beading thread (in a matching color)
- Wire protector
- Stud earrings
- Open ring 4mm
- Miyuki seed beads 11/0 (11-592, 11-597, 11-4204)
Instructions:
Take a piece of thread about 1 meter long. This will be enough for the entire earring, including the fringe. If this is too much for you, half the length is fine, and you can use a new thread for the fringe. Begin with a ladder stitch to create the base for the brick stitch triangle (top of the earring) where you’ll essentially hang the fringe.
This is the bottom row of the triangle for the ladder stitch.
Once the ladder stitch is finished, you can continue with the brick stitch technique until your pattern is finished.
Above is shown the brick stitch technique. After 11 beads using ladder stitch, we begin with brick stitch from right to left.
You end up with 2 beads on top to which you can attach a wire protector.
The top is now finished, and we can continue with the fringes. You can thread the thread all the way from top to bottom, or you can start with a new thread, which is also an option. Pay close attention to your pattern and count carefully, as each fringe has a different number to create a beautiful pattern and height variation. String the beads as shown in the next image. You don’t need to tie them together; simply continue threading them through the next bead. Be careful not to pull them too tight, but definitely not too loose either.
Pattern:
Once your fringes are finished, you can attach a stud of your choice.
You can make the fringe earrings as large or as small as you like.
Despite their appearance, they’re very comfortable to wear because they’re so light.
Have fun making and wearing these earrings!
Extra tips:
- You can string these kinds of earrings with seed beads or with delica beads. Delica beads are a bit easier because you can pull them tightly together.
- For many techniques, it doesn’t matter whether you use fireline or basting thread, but for this technique, we definitely recommend basting with basting thread. Especially with the fringes, it’s important to use basting thread so the fringes hang down nicely. You can stretch the basting thread a bit before you start basting. Also, be careful not to pull the fringes too tight to ensure a smooth drape.
- Are you having trouble getting the fringe to hang straight down, and have you tried not pulling it too tight? You could try stringing a slightly heavier bead onto the fringe last, so the weight helps it hang straighter. You could also stretch the fringe for a day using elastic bands and something you can securely wrap the elastic around to keep the earring flat. If you leave it like this for a day, the thread will stretch properly, and the earring will hang more smoothly.
- Is your brick stitch threading not staying flat? Delicate beads are easier to flatten than seed beads. If it’s still not working, you can paint the back of your earring with something like diamond graze to help it stay flat. We don’t have any experience with this ourselves, but we saw this tip on a Facebook group about jewelry making.