They make it look so easy....

The photo original piece is on the left and my misshapen first tries are on the right.

making my own ball-end headpins

It's surprisingly easy and fun to make your own ball-end headpins. All you need is silver or copper wire, a butane hand torch, pliers and a dish of water. It should be done in open air, I worked in my back yard. Grasp a length of wire with pliers and hold the free end in the torch flame until a small ball forms. It can take a few tries to get it right. Turn off the torch and dip your new headpin in the water to quench it. It will take a few times to get it right. After the headpins cool, polish with fine steel wool. I was able to make a cool pair of earrings with my own headpins!
I used instructions from a fab tutorial from http://www.how-to-make-jewelry.com/

"mod" earrings

Hot Mama chili pepper set.

True Blood Necklace

Bright crystal drops

I want to call them "happy little pineapples" because that's what they remind me of. These are micro-faceted crystal, sterling silver wire and small Swarovski bicones.

small hematite on oxidized silver, gunmetal leverbacks

new earrings

amythest faceted onion briolettes on sterling silver!

Made with gunmetal, oxidized silver, rose quartz, lucite flower cups, crystals. I made this as a gift for a lovely woman who bought my rose quartz earrings.

I found that you can take a high gage headpin, and wire wrap the end, using it to form the stamen of a flower.