12 More Easy DIY Bead Earring Designs for Fall

In my previous post on this topic, I shared 10 very easy, beginner-friendly beaded earrings designs that can be made with basic supplies and tools. That post has information about how to make bead stacks on head pins and bead dangles on eye pins.

-In stack designs, all the beads are stacked onto one head pin. The only articulation point is where the ear wire is attached to the loop at the top of the head pin so the entire beaded portion "swings" together.

-In dangle designs, there is both a head pin with bead(s) at the bottom but also an eye pin with beads(s) above it which connects to the ear wire. This gives the earring an extra articulation point so there is more "jangle" and movement in the earring.

Today I am following up with another dozen earring ideas that are still very easy to make but require some additional findings/components (that I will discuss as we go along).

For these designs, you will need a few basic techniques (which I will link to jewelry maker instructions or video for):

-Make a simple loop (20 or 21 gauge wire/pin) or a wire wrapped loop (22 or 24 gauge wire/pin); note if you are using 20 or 21 gauge, you can also use a one-step looper, my favorite way to do it

-Open and close the loop on the top of the bead stack or the ear wire to connect

-Open and close a jump ring

I'm sharing examples of these designs from my own collection with a focus on fall-forward colors and motifs. Let's take a look!

Earring Design #1: Premade Hoop & Small Beads

This is the very first type of earring I ever made! I didn't know anything about wire, head pins, or eye pins, but when I saw these premade hoops on Amazon {not an affiliate link}, I figured I could manage this style of earring using the seed beads in my small stash (bottom left). The design works great with 11/0, 8/0, and 6/0 seed beads - one size or mixed, one color or mixed, one shape or mixed, etc. I have also experimented with other shapes of small beads, including flat triangle beads (first row), 4mm or smaller gemstone beads and spacers (middle row), and small chip beads (bottom right).

The only tricky bit was figuring out how to keep the hoop closed after adding the beads; I used GS Hypo Cement glue at first but later realized that I could use the tip of my needle nose pliers to push down and crimp the hoop closed, which is easier, faster, and less messy. (See around 2:45-3:30 of this video to see how this works.)

This type of beadable premade earring hoop is available in a lot of different places and goes by a variety of names; I had good luck searching for "open wire frame beadable hoop for earrings" to pull up many different examples. I liked the Amazon ones I linked above enough that I have reordered the set; it comes with gold and silver hoops in three different sizes. I tend to use the middle and large hoops when using small beads as shown here.

Earring Design #2: Premade Hoop & Larger Beads

This is a variation on the previous design using fewer, larger beads. Of course you can use as many of the large beads as you like, but for those of us who are sensitive to heavy earrings, you'll want to use fewer of the larger beads, particularly if they are made from glass or gemstones. The black pair (middle right) I made originally on the large size hoop filled all the way around with glass beads and it was painful to wear; I took them apart and remade them on a smaller hoop with fewer beads as shown here and that worked very well for me.

Earring Design #3: Connector with Fringe

Earring Design #4: Connector with Bead Stack Dangle

These two designs were made using metal filigree connector pieces that came in the Bargain Bead Box for September 2024, but there are a lot of different metal links and connectors you can use to make earrings. (I recommend searching for "metal connector for jewelry making" to pull up some different styles. "Filigree connector for jewelry making" finds styles similar to the one I used.)

For design 3, small bead stacks are put onto head pins with simple loops at the top; then the simple loops are opened and attached at open points along the connector. This style of earring can also be made using the more traditional earring finding of a chandelier (search "chandelier earring finding for jewelry making") that has multiple loops along the bottom to connect your beaded stacks as fringe. For design 4, a single bead stack on a head pin is attached to the end of the connector, making a long and narrow dangly earring.

Earring Design #5: Large Statement Charms

This is the easiest design of all; it requires only a charm and an ear wire for supplies, chain nose pliers as the tool, and the ability to open and close the loop on the ear wire to connect it. Charms come in an astonishing array of sizes and metal colors, but I gravitate toward large colorful enamel charms to make these statement earrings ("large enamel charms for jewelry making"). How big a "large charm" needs to be is totally up to you, but I think in the range of about 20-30cm in each direction is my sweet spot. Bead Box Bargains is my go-to supplier for charms like these, but they are readily available in a lot of places.

Earring Design #6: Bead and Charm

Of course beads and charms can be combined to make easy dangle earrings, and this is a good way to use smaller charms that don't work as well for statement charm earrings. In these earrings, a single bead (and optionally bead caps and/or small spacers) is added to an eye pin and the charm is attached below it. Depending on the orientation of your charm, you might need to use a jump ring so that the charm faces to the front rather than the side. I like beads in the range of 6-12mm for the top portion, depending on the size of the charms. You can also purchase "wire wrapped beads" that are premade so all you have to do is attach the three pieces (like the owl, leaf, and rose versions below).

Earring Design #7: Bead Stack and Charm

In place of a single bead, you can also make a bead stack on the eye pin and connect the charm beneath it. I tend to keep the stack somewhat short because I don't like wearing very long earrings, but that's totally designer's choice.

Earring Design #8: Bead Dangles & Charm

Earring Design #9: Bead Frame

Design 8, another variant of the bead/charm earring, uses two beads-on-an-eye-pin and/or wire wrapped beads with a charm at the bottom. This creates an additional point of articulation for even more dangle-jangle. Design 9 incorporates a bead frame around a bead for an integrated bead-and-metal look. This particular owl-shaped bead frame came as a charm with the bead already attached, which makes it function like the statement charm in Design 5, but you can also add your own bead frame and bead to a head pin to create your own.

Earring Design #10: Ring and Bead Dangle

Earring Design #11: Bead Stack and Dagger

Earring Design #12: Cha Cha Beads

Design 10 is another very dangly earring with multiple articulation points. The unusual component in this design is the empty ring that is attached to the top and bottom bead sections with jump rings. (Try searching "ring connector for jewelry making" for many different versions or "coconut ring for jewelry making" for something similar to mine.) Design 11 is similar to the bead stack and charm (7 above) except instead of a charm, you connect a dagger bead to the bottom. Daggers ("dagger bead for jewelry making") come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and materials with different hole orientations. The ones shown here are drilled from side to side at the top while others have a hole running from front to back at the top. Design 12 is a bit of a cheat because I purchased a set of premade little bead/spacer/head pin components and attached them to an interlocking length of jump rings to create a very easy pair of cha cha earrings. But of course you can make the beaded components yourself with beads and head pins. (See around 3:45-9:20 in this video to see an example.)

OK, that concludes my look book of easy DIY beaded stack, dangle, and charm earring designs! I hope you will give one of them a try.

Have you ever made any beaded earrings like these? Do you like charm earrings? Do you have a favorite design from this set of 12?

Blogs I link up with are listed here.