How to Make Seed Bead Earrings (Hoops)

If you are looking for tutorials on how to make seed bead earrings, this DIY seed bead hoop earrings tutorial is easy and very beginner friendly.

Learn simple beading and looping technique to make these gorgeous pair of deep purple and pale moss green seed bead hoops in under 30 minutes.

These seed bead earrings are made using pre-made round hoops in silver metals. The hoop earrings design consist of clusters of 3mm round purple seed beads at the bottom of the hoops. These gorgeous deep purple clusters are alternated between a row of similar sized seed beads in pale moss green, forming a pretty row of seed bead clusters on each hoop. The row of seed bead clusters are ended with 4mm round antique silver beads on each side.

The finished seed bead earrings measure 3.5 cm in width and 4.25cm in length. These lovely pair of hoops are perfect for casual wear. They also make a lovely pair for any special occasion.

How to Make

Video Tutorial

Here's my video on how to make these pretty pair of seed bead earrings. And get the full list of supplies and step by step instructions right below, in the section section on this page:

Supplies

• 2 premade hoop earrings in silver colored metal
• 4 antique silver colored round beads
• 20 round pearl lustre seed beads in pale moss green (3mm in diameter)
• 66 round pearl luster seed beads in purple (3mm in diameter)
• 66 head pins in silver metal with round heads (I used 2cm long, round back headpins, but you only need about the headpins to be 1 cm long. You can use 2cm or longer headpins and cut off the excess or get exactly 1cm headpins to make these cluster seed bead earrings)

Tools

• Round nose pliers
• Wire cutter
• Flat nose pliers

Preparing the purple seed beads for the clusters

1. If you are using headpins that are longer than 1cm, cut the headpin wire to a 1cm length. Discard the excess.
2. Next, insert one purple bead into each headpin.
3. Holding the bead close to the end with one hand, bend the excess head pin wire to a 45 degrees angle with the other hand. If your head pin wire is hard to bend with fingers, use a flat nose plier.
4. Next, using a round rose plier, form a loop with the bent wire. Bending the wire to a 45 degrees angle helps to ensure the loop is centered above the bead. If it is not, simply adjust (either with your fingers or with a flat nose plier) to make it centered. Try to push the end of the wire into the bead hole. Repeat the process for all the 66 purple beads.

Preparing the hoops

1. The hoops I used for this project are simple round shape hook hoops that come with a loop on one end and a 45 degrees bent end on the other end. There is no need to use other earring hook for this project. To insert the beads into the hoop, you will need to do it though the bent end. While larger beads can be inserted through the bent wire, smaller beads like the seed beads used for this seed bead earrings will not go through. Hence, you will need to straighten the wire to allow the beads to get into the wire and the hoop.
2. To do this, simply use a flat nose plier to flatten the bended end of the hoop. It need to be perfectly flat, suffice if it is flat enough to let the seed beads pass through.

Assembling the purple and moss green hoop earrings

• Start by inserting one antique silver bead (the first bead) into the hoop.

• Follow by 3 purple bead dangles.

• And then insert a moss green bead as the spacer bead.

• Repeat with another 3 purple bead dangle.

• Continue the process until you have inserted 10 green beads and 11 clusters of purple beads (33 purple beads in total). At this stage, the row of green seed beads in the hoop should begin and end with a cluster of purple beads on each side.

• To finish the first side of the seed bead earrings, insert another antique silver bead as the last bead to the end of the row of bead.

1. Use a flat nose plier to bend the end of the hoop back to its original 45 degrees angle.
2. As a last step, to ensure the beads do to roll out through the bent wire, try to push the silver bead out after bending the wire. If it can come out, bend the wire a bit more until the bead can no longer come out.

• Repeat all the steps above for to make the second earring to complete the pair of seed bead earrings.

Options

• Metal color - I used silver toned metal to make these seed bead earring. The hoops are in silver color and the head pins are also chose to match the silver color. You can easily replace the silver with gold or bronze metal.
• Hoop Size - These earrings are made using medium sized hoops measuring 3.5cm in diameter. You can adjust the size of the hoops to make smaller or large hoop earrings, however, do take note that the size of the seed beads may also need to be adjusted to make the size of the hoops.
• Beads color - I used a combination of purple and moss green to make these hoops. You can make them in any other different colors you like. It does not have to be a mere 2 color combination. You can use white seed bead or turquoise bead, transparent beads in seed bead sizes or even czech beads. You can even make the clusters in a multi color combination of colorful seed beads.
• Number of beads cluster and length of the beads row - you can adjust the row of beads on these seed bead earrings to your liking. The ones on this page have a row of beads at approximately 4 to 4.5cm. If you like a longer row of beads, simply make more bead dangles and add them to the earrings. If you like shorter, you can also reduce the number of the green beads and the purple clusters accordingly.

How to wear the hoop earrings

• To put on these bead earrings, open up the hoops.
• Holding your earlobe on one hand, stretch it down gently. In doing this, make sure you hold your ear lobe below your earring hole.
• Next, gently insert the bent end of the hoop earring into your earring hole. Once the wire is in, push the wire in a little more until the ends of the hoop are well hidden behind your ear.
• Hook the ends to hold the earrings in place.
• You can adjust the hoops further so that the beads are well positioned into a close row of clusters towards the bottom of the hoops.

How to avoid the beads from falling out

• These beaded hoop earrings do not have any stoppers on the sides to hold the beads in place. This means the beads are not held tightly in place, but can move freely in the hoop. This is not really a problem as the beads will fall well in place once the earrings are put on (thanks to gravity).

The looped end of the hoop

• The loop on one end of the pre made hoops prevent the beads from falling out from that end.

The bent end of the hoop earrings

• The 90 degrees bent end on the other end of the metal hoop also prevent the beads from falling out from that end.
• Having said that, larger beads have the tendency to be able to fall out even with the bent end, and this is especially so if the wire is bent at a lesser than 90 degrees angle.
• In the case of the handmade beaded hoop earrings in this tutorial, if the last silver bead in each of the earring is of the exact same size as provided in this tutorial (ie 4mm) and is with a hole that is not too large, the bead should not all out of the hoop, provided the end of the hoop is bent at a 90 degree angle.
• To be absolutely sure that the silver bead does not fall though the bend loop, try to push it out gently through it. If it is able to fall out, use a flat nosed plier to bend the bent end to a larger degree. That way, you can be sure that the beads, despite being able to move freely in the hoop, will not roll out it when the hoops are open.

And that's pretty much my simple beginner tutorial for seed bead earrings!

Like this easy DIY earrings tutorial? Here are my other projects you might want to check out:

• Earring Making for Beginners - 2 Easy Projects
• How to Make Faux Leather Earrings (without Cricut)
• How to Make Earrings - Easy Pearl Earrings
• DIY Dangle Earrings with Chain - How to Make
• How to Make Pearl Drop Earrings
• How to Make Beaded Teardrop Earrings

Happy crafting 🙂