Earring Wire Length Calculator

Wire length = Wraps × π × Diameter + Loop allowance — One turn of a hoop is diameter × π. A 20 mm hoop is 62.8 mm, so two overlapping turns are 125.7 mm, and with a 15 mm loop allowance that is 140.7 mm per earring, 281.3 mm for the pair. The loop allowance covers forming the loop that hangs from the ear wire and finishing the end: a plain round-nose loop takes 8–10 mm, a wrapped loop 20–25 mm. Wraps go in half steps — 1.5 turns gives a hoop with a half overlap that reads as a double line from the front. For a drop rather than a hoop, put the drop width in the diameter field and 1 in the wraps field for a single circumference. Matching is the real point of this calculation: measure and cut the two earrings separately and they come out 1–2 mm apart, which is visible head-on. Cut the pair length, fold it in half, and cut once.

With Diameter 20mm, Wraps 2, Loop allowance 15mm, the answer is Wire length 140.7mm.

Enter Diameter, Wraps, Loop allowance. The result recalculates as you type, and an empty box counts as zero.

Changing only Diameter (mm) moves the answer to Diameter (mm) 10 → Wire length (mm) 77.8 and Diameter (mm) 40 → Wire length (mm) 266.3. The table below lays out five steps.

Money is shown to the nearest whole unit, percentages to one decimal place and everything else to two. What you see is rounded; the calculation itself carries the unrounded value forward.

Skimp on the allowance and you cannot finish the piece. Without a tail to grip you cannot tighten the loop, and the wire stretches slightly as you pull it in, so the real length exceeds the arithmetic. Heavy wire — 0.8 mm / 20 gauge and up — will not form a clean circle in the hand and has to be wound on a mandrel, which makes the hoop mandrel plus wire diameter across, larger than calculated. Whatever passes through the ear should be surgical steel, titanium or fine silver; keep nickel-bearing craft wire to the body of the hoop. Add a millimetre per cut for filing the ends smooth.