Tree of Life Earrings

Cut the 18 gauge wire in half. Take one of the 18 gauge wires and wrap it slightly off center around the ring mandrel right next to the handle (about a size 15 ½ ring).
Bend the longer tail of the wire up away from the ring mandrel at a 90 degree angle.

Wrap the shorter tail of the wire around the end bent up. Make sure the wire around the mandrel is tight so it keeps its shape.

Take the circle off the mandrel. End the wire going around the wire sticking out of the circle buy cutting it off about ¼ inch from where it bends around the other wire. Use pliers to crimp the end of the cut off wire to where it touches the circle of wire. There is no need to make this tight, it just has to hold the circle in shape.

Take round nose pliers and put the tip right next to where the straight wire comes out of the circle. Bend the straight wire to the side (in line with the circle). Next use round nose pliers to make a loop out of the wire just bent. Trim the end of the wire so the end of the loop just touches where the loop started. Make sure your loop goes in the same direction of the circle.

Make a 2nd circle out of the other piece of 18 gauge wire.

Cut the 26 gauge wire into twelve 7" pieces. Take one piece of the smaller gauge wire and find the middle. Starting in middle of the wire wrap the wire around the circle 4 times. Twist the ends of the wire together right next to the circle a couple times after wrapping around the circle.

Repeat putting 5 more smaller gauge wires onto the circle for a total of 6 of the wires.

Repeat with the other circle and the rest of the wire pieces.

Flip all the wires wrapped around the circle up so they lie on the circle. Twist all the wires together a few times right above where the individual wires are twisted together.

Pull off 2 to 4 wires on one side. Twist the two wires together a few times, NOT all the way to the circle frame. Leave enough wire untwisted to put the beads on them. If more then 2 wires are pulled off twist all together a few times then separate and twist a couple more times. After twisting separate the wires and arrange the branches on out to the frame. Put another twist in the main group of wires to extend the trunk.

Pull off a couple more wires on the other side of the trunk. Repeat twisting them together like in the last step. Make another twist in the main bunch of wires to extend the trunk of the tree. The main bunch of wires can be bent to one side or the other while doing this so the trunk is not straight or it can be left straight. Continue pulling off wires to be branches and twisting them together making the tree. Arrange the wire branches to form the tree wanted.

Starting on the lowest branch on one side of the tree, put beads on the branch wire to fill the space between where the twisting stops and the frame. Wrap the end of the wire around the frame 3 or 4 times.

Repeat beading the branch wires all the way around the circle. I like always wrapping the end of my wires down towards the bottom of the tree. After all the branches are beaded and secured to the frame, take round nose plies and put little bends in the trunk, branches, and roots of the tree. Cut off all the ends of the branches on the back side next to the frame and smooth over with chain nose pliers.

Make the 2nd earring. Do not worry about making them the same similar or totally different works for tree earrings. Put on the earring hooks and enjoy your new earrings!