Have you seen the beautiful minimalist jewelry out there. Delicate gold strands, stacks of effortlessly cool rings, and simple studs adoring ear lobes everywhere. It's so beautiful and understated, which makes me love it even more. But when approaching jewelry design, with a minimalist look in mind, it's actually really hard. If you ask any creative, it's challenging to make something beautiful with very little to work with, but if you do, you've really struck gold. So I broke down my approach to minimalist jewelry into four basic steps starting with earrings.
Gather Your Materials
All you'll need for this fun little project is wire of any kind, just make sure it is workable and can bend pretty easily and is not too stiff to work with. Secondly a pair of needle nose pliers and last but certainly not least some earring backings to hook your design to, so you can wear them.
Collect Your Inspiration
Before I get started with any jewelry project. I like to gather some inspiration. Whether it's images of jewelry I like or play a song to get myself into the zone. So collect some minimalist earrings you like, to get an in idea of what shape you would like the earrings to be. Like geometric designs maybe aim for a octagon or diamond. Like hoops, look up different size circles to see which size works best. Like abstract designs, peruse a few to see how far you want to push the envelope. Now that you've gathered some earring shapes for inspiration, you'll have a visual starting point on where you would like your design to go.
Twist and Turn Your Wire
Now here is the fun part, experimenting with the wire. Start bending the wire into the shapes you selected in your inspiration pool. Bend, twist, and turn with the help of your pliers until you get a shape you are happy with. Mess up or not happy with it, no problem start again till you get a shape that is just right. Once you are happy with the shape, use it as your model. Create two duplicates of that model to make up your two earrings, but make sure you leave an inch of excess wire that is straight, to form the loops that hook on to the earring backing.
Hook and Wear
Last but not least, create a loop and hook on to the earring backing. This is the hardest part of the process. Making sure the earring is secure and the design is stable, so don't give yourself a hard time if it's a little rough getting it all in one go. This is my work around getting additional beads and clasps, if you want to make something minimal without the lengthy list of materials. And there you are, your first set of minimalist earrings to adorn your lovely ears. Cheers to you!
Comments