How to Make an Ear Cuff for Unpierced Ears

Jewelry Making Supplies:

14 inches of 16 or 18 gauge wire
Other supplies as necessary to make the earring body

Jewelry Making Tools:

Round Nose Pliers
Flush Cutter
Chain Nose or Bent Chain Nose Pliers (2)
Ruler
Step Jaw Pliers
WigJig Cyclops, Electra or Centaur
2 1/2" Super Pegs for the jig you use. (Or 1 1/2" and 1 7/16")
30 minutes of free time

Jewelry Skills Required:

Ability to make loops in wire
Ability to make wire components by wrapping wire on a WigJig jewelry making tool.

Step 1: Cut a piece of 16 or 18 gauge wire 6 inches long.

Step 2: Make a loop in the end of the wire with the flush cut.

Step 3: Hold the wire by the loop and straighten the wire by pulling it repeatedly through the jaws of your nylon jaw pliers.

Step 4: Position pegs 1 through 6 in your jig as shown above-right. Pegs 1, 3, 4, and 5 are regular metal pegs for your jig. Pegs 2 and 6 are Super Pegs for your WigJig Centaur (shown) or WigJig Cyclops or Electra. If you have two 1/2" Super Pegs use both as pegs 2 and 6. If you only have one 1/2" Super Peg, use it for peg 6 and use a 7/16" Super Peg for peg 2. (Peg 6 is at the bottom of the ear.) The pattern shown here is for a normal sized ear.... Actually it is for my ear and at 6'3" tall, my ear is normal to me, but probably larger than most peoples ear. You may find that you want to move pegs 1, 2, and 6 closer together by one peg hole each. When you have your pegs in position, place your initial loop on peg 1 and wrap the wire around the remaining pegs as shown.

Step 5: Remove your wire from the jig. At this point, it should look as the picture below. Position this wire over one of your ears and determine where to make a loop in the end of the wire so that the loop would rest approximately where the hole in a pierced ear would be on your ear.


Step 6: Using your round nose pliers make the final loop in the wire.

Step 7: After completing the second loop in your ear cuff, cut the excess wire using your flush cutter and close that final loop using your bent chain nose pliers.

Step 8: Both the initial loop and the final loop need to be bent slightly up so that they will be comfortable to wear. When lying flat on the table as shown at right, both the loops for the left and for the right ear cuff will be raised off the table. Adjusting the ear cuff so that it is comfortable to wear is done by trial and error. You may need to bend the top and bottom of the ear cuff so that they are either closer together, or further apart depending on which is more appropriate for the cuff to fit your ear.

Step 9: When you have the size of the ear cuff adjusted correctly, so that it is comfortable to wear and is easy to put on, then connect the bottom loop in the ear cuff to your earring body. Generally this connection would be made by a figure 8 connector or a modified figure 8 connector. You can view how to make a figure 8 connector here.

Make a second ear cuff using the same steps, but bend the initial and final loops up in the opposite direction so that you get two mirror image ear cuffs as shown below.


For more free instruction on jewelry making, and supplies for this project, visit the WigJig website!!!