The Earring Style Book: Rachael and Rio Earrings

Front and back view

Front of the Rio Earrings

These lovely 'Rio' earrings grace the cover of The Earring Style Book: Making Designer Earrings, Capturing Celebrity Style, and Getting the Look for Less by Stephanie Wells.  The book has 40 exceptional projects, organized into 4 basic categories: everyday chic, bohemian beauty, glamour girl, rock and roll.  All of the earring styles revolve around a common theme of a wire frame with bead or spiral embellishments.

The Rio Earrings are part of the glamour girl collection.  This book is serious eye candy and I can't imagine anyone who won't be inspired by the designs.  I've enjoyed having this book in my collection, but what I really wanted to understand is if the instructions are as good as the designs and pictures.  Here's the story...

Spirals for the Rachael Earrings

The first project I was going to make were the Rachael earrings.  These earrings use the same circular frame you see in the Rio earrings, but have a spiral coil wired inside the frame.  According to the instructions, they take approximately 15-20 minutes for the pair.  My guess is that the time estimates do not include the prep time - since I am a moderately experienced wire wrapper and I don't think I could make them in that amount of time unless all of the wire was cut, the stones were laid out and everything was ready to go.  I made all the component parts - 2 wire frames and 2 coil inserts and guess what?  The coils did not, and would not, fit inside the frames.  With 16g wire, there is just no possibility of uncoiling and re-coiling tighter, so I was stuck!

Here's where the book was fabulous and worth every penny!  One of the first chapters has the instructions on how to make all of the basic frame shapes.  It also includes a reference that tells you which earrings use which frames.  So, when my coils for the Rachael earrings didn't fit, I just found another pair of earrings that used the same frame of a similar size and salvaged half of my work.  I can't tell you how frustrated I would have been if I didn't finish a pair of earrings after all of the work - and that simple bit of reference information saved me.



Now, for the bad news.  The pictures are fabulous, but the instructions are very confusing.  Usually, the pictures and the words go together.  That was not true for the instructions for the Rio earrings.  The instructions tell you to make sure to wrap the wire while holding the frame right side up.  The pictures show them wrapping the frame with the back side showing.  Hmmm, so which is it?  Follow the instructions.  The pictures show the technique, but don't necessarily correlate with the words.  A major flaw in my opinion.

Another negative:  The instructions always have you make a single earring and then go back and make the second.  Often, when working with frames, it makes sense to make them together to keep them as symmetrical as possible.  Stephanie doesn't even suggest that possibility.

One more plus: the book will often show one earrings style with different beads or different type of wire which really helps visualize how different the project can look using round beads instead of faceted, gold instead of silver, etc.

I am currently working on the 'Marlene' earrings and should be able to post those earrings and my comments this weekend.