A step-by-step guide to making earrings

What you need: pliers, wire cutters, beads, bead caps and/or charms, headpins, ear wires, chain Photograph: Rachel Essex

Thread a headpin through your first bead and bend it at a right angle. Use your wire cutters to cut the end off the headpin, leaving enough wire to make a loop at the top of your bead Photograph: Rachel Essex

Use round pliers to make an open loop and thread it onto one link of your first length of chain Photograph: Rachel Essex

Use your flat pliers to close the loop Photograph: Rachel Essex

Continue doing this until your chain has enough beads to look nicely crowded Photograph: Rachel Essex

Use round pliers to open up the loop at the bottom of your ear wire, thread the two end links of your chain onto it and use flat pliers to close it Photograph: Rachel Essex

Well done! You’ve made a professional-looking pair of unique earrings Photograph: Rachel Essex