Float Like A Butterfly Earrings - Tutorial!

Hi, all!  Check out these flittery, fluttery butterfly earrings.

This design is really at its best when worn - the true effect is a little hard to capture in a photo.  That's because they have lots of movement and, when hanging free, tend to cascade in almost a spiral.  This pic shows it a bit better:

I know it looks complex, but it's not really so difficult, I promise.  Tutorial begins now!

Put four butterfly beads on headpins, with one pin a little shorter than the other three.  Turn a loop at the top of each one.  You will end up with four butterfly dangles, with empty lengths of pin exposed.  Like this:

Swivel open the loop on one of the long dangles, and add it to the empty section of the short dangle.  Close the loop.  It should look like this.

Do the same with the next two dangles, adding each butterfly to the empty pin section of the one above it.  You will end up with this interesting geometry:

Now add an earring finding to the loop at the top of the cascade (the short butterfly dangle).

If you have two ears, make a second earring.  And you're done!

Aren't they fun?  I used some little polymer clay butterflies from a bracelet I took apart, and some carved beads in a stone called strawberry quartz.  There are so many cute butterfly beads out there, I bet you find just the thing to make your heart flutter.

In a good way.  Not in a tachycardic kind of way.

Hope some of you decide to give it a try!