Earwire Tutorial

I start with two 2 inch pieces of 20 ga. sterling wire

I'm putting the pen right in the middle of BOTH pieces.

I'm pressing the wire firmly against the pen --VERY firmly-- because I want it to conform to the shape of the pen and not form a peak.

I push the tips until they touch; they'll spring back.

I keep pressing one side completely around the pen until I've made a letter "P"

This was difficult to take a picture of, so I've taken several pictures and made a diagram.

I usually put a coil or bead on, so I want the crook to be deep (so the coil/bead can't slide off). The bend is at the center-line of the circle. The green triangles are my pliers
tips; I grasp the wires there (yes I do both at the same time) and bend the excess wire down until it's vertical. The diagrams below show how I put a bead on and then bend the rest of the wire into a right angle. This is the piece I roll back toward the bead, in a loop (I do each wire separately). To finish, I grasp the tails of both wires with my pliers and bend them out slightly.  I straighten them out and tumble them.

Here you can see that I've grasped the wires from within the loop, with my pliers.  I'll bend them straight down, parallel to the other wires.