For this year’s (i.e. 2022) Halloween my family and I have decided to dress as various characters from the Harry Potter Movies. One of them will be Luna Lovegood and in this blog post, I’m going to describe, how to create Luna’s fancy beaded radish earrings no one overlook.
In this tutorial you will learn:
- Tools needed to make the earrings
- How to make a radish leaf
- How to make a radish
- How to complete the Luna Lovegood earrings
Tools you will need for Luna’s earrings
For the radish earrings, you will need the following (see the image below):
- Dark green glass beads (2 mm – 5/64 ”)
- Light green glass beads (2 mm – 5/64 ”) (optional)
- White or translucent glass beads (2 mm – 5/64 ”)
- Red glass beads (2 mm – 5/64 ”)
- Thin jewelry-making wire (0,3 mm – 1/64 ”)
- Scissors or wire cutter
- 2 earring hooks
Ensure your wire is thin enough. Fold it twice and make sure you can still string a bead.
How to make a leaf
All together you will need six leaves. In the following steps, I’m going to describe and show you how to make one. You will mostly see photos and schemes next to each other explaining verbally or visually how to bead the wire to make a leaf.
1. Cut 40 cm (about 16 ”) of wire. It is longer than needed for one leaf, but more comfortable to work with. Make sure the wire is nice and straight and has no loops on it, which make it difficult to string the beads.
2. String 6 dark green beads and align them in the center of the thin wire.
3. String 8 light green beads on one end of the wire. Make sure to keep the dark green beads in the middle.
4. Loop the other end of the wire through the whole row of the light green beads. Now, both ends of the wire should be passing through these beads.
5. Slowly pull both ends of the wire into opposite directions.
6. Check that the new row of beads is fixed by the wires tightly.
The process of creating new rows of beads will be identical (see the image below).
Now, that one leaf is complete, you have to create another five leaves :). Don’t worry, you will be faster with each new leaf.
How to make a radish
Obviously, you will need exactly two radishes. Follow the steps below and learn how to make one. Pick the thin wire, red and white/translucent beads, and start right away.
1. Cut two pieces of wire – both at least 60 cm (24 ”) long. This might seem a little too long to you, but trust me – you do not want to run out of wire towards the end of your creation.
2. Align the two wires and string one white bead through both of them. Align the bead in the middle of the wires.
2. Bend the wires around the bead so that all four ends are aligned. Be careful not to break the wires.
4. Line up all 4 wire ends and string a bead through all of them. Move this bead all along the wires until you reach the very first bead.
5. Divide the wires into two pairs. Through one pair of wire ends string one bead and through the other pair of wires string another bead.
6. Divide both wire pairs so that you get four single wires.
From this point on the creation of the radish will be very similar to making a leaf.
7. String and loop 4 white beads and pull the wires in opposite directions.
8. By pulling the wire ends in opposite directions you create an arch. At this phase, one half of the first circular row is complete. In the next step, you will create the other half.
9. On the two other wires repeat the same steps. String and loop 4 white beads.
10. Pull the wires in opposite directions and form an arch.
11. Twist wires that meet on both ends of the arches. This way you fix them into position and create one complete row of beads. It will be the first one out of eight that will form the spheric shape of a radish. You will twist wires every time you have completed both halves of a circle.
The next circle rows of the radish will be made the same way: string the required number of beads, loop two wires through the beads and pull. Do the same with the second pair of wires. Then twist the opposite ends to fix the row. In the image below I’m going to show a shortened version of the process.
12. String 6 white beads, loop the wires, and pull to create an arch. One half of the second row is ready.
13. On the opposite wires: string 6 white beads, loop the wires, and pull to create an arch. In the photo below you can see a sphere is being formed.
14. Now you will start with red beads. String 10 red beads, loop the wires, and pull to create an arch.
15. String another 10 red beads, loop, and pull the wires. Twist the wire ends to fix the row.
16. String 12 red beads, loop, and pull the wires to create an arch.
17. On the other half, string 12 red beads, loop, and pull the wires to create an arch. Twist the wire ends to fix the row.
18. To form the next row of beads, string 14 red beads, loop, and pull the wires to create an arch.
19. On the other side, string 14 red beads, loop, and pull the wires to create an arch. Do not forget to twist the wires to fix the beads in position. This is the widest part of the radish earring.
19. Now, the radish will start to narrow. String 12 red beads, loop, and pull the wires to create an arch.
20. String 12 red beads on the other half, loop, and pull the wires to create an arch. Fix the wires to fix the row.
21. String 10 red beads, loop, and pull the wires to create an arch.
22. On the other side, string 10 red beads, loop, and pull the wires to create an arch. Again, twist the wires.
23. This will be the last row of beads. String 8 red beads, loop, and pull the wires to create an arch.
24. This will be the last row of beads. String 8 red beads, loop, and pull the wires to create an arch. Again, twist the wires to keep the beads in position. The radish is ready.
At this phase, your radish earring should look something like this (see the image below).
How to complete the Luna Lovegood earrings
Now, that you have all leaves and radishes, you can complete the earrings. In the following steps, I’m going to show you how to finish one earring. For the other one follow the very same steps.
1. Twist the wire pairs of one radish as shown in the image below.
2. Place all wires of the leaves in the center of the twisted wires. Make sure the leaves are nicely spread around the radish.
3. Take one pair of wires from the radish and twist them around the rest of the wires.
4. After you have twisted about 1 cm (1/2 ”), cut off the rest of the wires leaving one pair of wires.
5. Now you can fix the radish to the earring hook and your Luna Lovegood radish earring is ready. Repeat the very same steps with the other radish and remaining leaves.
Now your DIY Luna Lovegood earrings are ready! Do not forget to check out other parts of Luna’s outfit. Like the black bubble skirt, bottle cork necklace or glasses called spectrespecs.
