Video Tutorial: Orecchini con Cipollotti (Earrings with Rondelles)

This video tutorial from lunasulmare1 is in Italian and it's a little difficult to follow. Several times her hands move off the screen just when she's adding beads. Despite these issues I was able to make a few sample earrings. I made the first sample using the bead sizes that she uses. It's a HUGE earring and much too large for me. It would make a very pretty pendant but I didn't like how it banged against the side of my neck when I had it on as an earring. If you want to give it a try, you can watch the video HERE.

UPDATE: Unfortunately, the video is no longer available.

Below is a photo of the original earrings from the video:

My challenge was to see if I could scale down the beads and make a much smaller version of the earring. It was easy enough to scale down the seed beads and the 6mm rondelles but I wasn't sure what to use in place of the 3mm rondelles. I went with some 2mm pearls and they worked very well and I love how they look. After making an initial test earring, I decided to change the way the top loop is added. Her method didn't work all that well with the smaller beads. My loop still looks the same from the front but I left off the extra beads that she adds on the back that I think may be to help support the heavy beads in her larger earrings.

The large earring is 1 3/4 inches long and 1 1/4 inches wide. The smaller version is 1 1/4 inches long and an inch wide.

Here is my first sample with the larger beads made as directed by the video:

• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457D)
• 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457D)
• 3mm rondelles "Black-Nickel #C36" (Beads One)
• 6mm rondelles "Black-Nickel #C36" (Beads One)

Here is a completed pair of these earrings:

The two samples below are the smaller version of the earring. You might notice that my "stars" are upright in the small earrings. That's because I forgot to pay attention to where I added the top loop. Oops! It works fine that way but the look is slightly different.

• 15/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457D)
• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457D)
• 2mm pearls "Antique Gold"
• 4mm rondelles "Black-Nickel - #C36" (Beads One)

• 15/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457D)
• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457D)
• 2mm pearls "Antique Gold"
• 4mm rondelles "Opaque Purple AB - #C90 AB" (Beads One - not available online)