It’s February, and snow and ice are covering every surface… which means I’d really like to fly away to someplace warm for the winter.
But I don’t have wings, so the next best thing is having Kayla explain how she makes these adorable wire bird’s nests. She made this sweet bracelet by creating 3 wrapped nests with different shades of freshwater pearls, then added swooping Vintaj bird charms. (The chain is one of our favorites: antiqued brass ring & connector chain.)
These wire nests use only a few supplies:
- 25-30″ of 24-gauge Artistic Wire or 22-gauge Artistic Wire.
- 3 oval beads (pearl, gemstone, Swarovski crystal pearl, etc)
And a single tool:
- Wire cutters (preferably tapered flush cutters)
Warning: Pearls often have tiny holes, so if you’re following this design using different pearls than the ones we’ve linked, you may need to use 26-gauge wire instead.
Wire Bird Nest Instructions:
For a thicker nest, just wrap a few more times around the beads.
The beads in the image above are (clockwise from top):
- 4x6mm green aventurine oval beads
- 5-8mm pink freshwater pearls
- 5-8mm champagne freshwater pearls
- 5-8mm dark blue freshwater pearls
The wire is 22-gauge Antique Brass Artistic Wire.
Want more options? Try these egg-shaped gemstone beads, or Swarovski crystal rice pearls, other colors of oval freshwater pearl beads. And once you make a few of these in colorful Artistic wire, you might want to branch out into sterling silver wire or gold-filled wire!
~ Polly & Kayla
Note: This style of wire-wrapped birds nest “baskets” work great for bracelets, earrings and pendants, because they don’t have a closed-off back — you can see the pretty egg-shaped pearl or gemstone beads from both sides of the charm.
Here is the perfect bird’s nest earring project:
Nesting Earrings Tutorial
Created by Rings & Things designer Rita Hutchinson. Visit Rings & Things Design Gallery for a complete list of the supplies and tools needed to make this project.
2 Comments
A spring and Easter project in one to me and cute and fanciful!
[…] Wire Wrapped Bird’s Nests: While many wire wrapping projects require decently (or immensely!) advanced skills in this field […]