Easy Bird’s Nest Wire Earrings (Tutorial)

by Rena Klingenberg. © 2003-Present Rena Klingenberg. All Rights Reserved

Easy Bird’s Nest Wire Earrings - Tutorial by Rena Klingenberg

These tiny wire bird’s nests are filled with seed beads in a robin’s-egg blue color.

Easy Bird’s Nest Wire Earrings - Tutorial by Rena Klingenberg

This project is a quick and easy way to make rustic looking nest jewelry – perfect for Spring and for Easter!

Easy Bird’s Nest Wire Earrings - Tutorial by Rena Klingenberg

I’ve made these earrings quite small – here’s the how they measure up on a ruler, in both inches and centimeters:

Easy Bird’s Nest Wire Earrings - Tutorial by Rena Klingenberg

Of course, you can make yours larger, if you prefer.

(Just be careful not to make them too heavy if they’ll be worn as earrings!)

Supplies:

  • 6 jump rings in 10mm (0.39″) size.
    (I used antiqued brass jump rings to approximate the color of actual bird nests.)
  • 2 pieces of 24 gauge soft or half-hard round wire – each 152mm (6″) long.
    (I used Artistic Wire in Bronze color.)
  • 6 seed beads in whatever colors you like for your eggs.
    I used size 6/0 seed beads in a turquoise blue color. I sorted them out from a bead mix I bought awhile back.
  • A pair of earwires or other earring findings to hang the nests onto.
    (I used a small, simple pair of hook earwires, in antiqued brass.)
  • Wire cutter.
  • Round nose pliers.
  • Chain nose and flat nose pliers – for opening and shutting jump rings.

How to Make
Easy Bird’s Nest Wire Earrings

One of the fun things about this project is that the bird’s nests will look better if you’re messy with your wirework.

So no need to aim for perfect wire-wraps here!

Just enjoy working organically with your wire. 🙂

We’ll make one earring at a time.

To start the first earring, lay out three of your jump rings:

Jump rings for Easy Bird’s Nest Wire Earrings - Tutorial by Rena Klingenberg

If you’re new to using jump rings, see my quick tip, How to Open and Close a Jump Ring.

Use your flat nose and chain nose pliers to twist open one of your jump rings, and thread it through one of the closed jump rings:

Easy Bird’s Nest Wire Earrings - Tutorial by Rena Klingenberg - attaching jump rings

Then use your chain nose and flat nose pliers to twist the jump ring shut:

Easy Bird’s Nest Wire Earrings - Tutorial by Rena Klingenberg - attaching jump rings

Now use your flat nose and chain nose pliers to twist open the third jump ring.

You’ll thread it through the other two jump rings, as shown here:

Easy Bird’s Nest Wire Earrings - Tutorial by Rena Klingenberg - attaching jump rings

Easy Bird’s Nest Wire Earrings - Tutorial by Rena Klingenberg - attaching jump rings

Then use your chain nose and flat nose pliers to twist the jump ring shut.

Now your three jump rings should look like this:

Easy Bird’s Nest Wire Earrings - Tutorial by Rena Klingenberg - attaching jump rings

Push the jump rings together, to create the frame of the bird’s nest:

Easy Bird’s Nest Wire Earrings - Tutorial by Rena Klingenberg - attaching jump rings

Now cut a piece of 24 gauge round wire, 152mm (6″) long.

No need to straighten the wire – we’ll just use it in whatever shape it is:

Easy Bird’s Nest Wire Earrings - Tutorial by Rena Klingenberg - cutting wire

Use the tips of your round nose pliers to grasp the center of your wire:

Easy Bird’s Nest Wire Earrings - Tutorial by Rena Klingenberg - wire wrapping

Use your fingers to bend the wire ends straight downward:

Easy Bird’s Nest Wire Earrings - Tutorial by Rena Klingenberg - wire wrapping

Your wire should look like this:

Easy Bird’s Nest Wire Earrings - Tutorial by Rena Klingenberg - wire wrapping

Use the tips of your round nose pliers to grasp the center of the “U” shape you just made in your wire; then cross the wire ends, making a loop:

Easy Bird’s Nest Wire Earrings - Tutorial by Rena Klingenberg - wire wrapping

. . . so that your wire now looks like this:

Easy Bird’s Nest Wire Earrings - Tutorial by Rena Klingenberg - wire wrapping

Now twist the two wire ends together, just below the loop.

Keep it messy – like a bird twisted the wire with her beak! 🙂

Easy Bird’s Nest Wire Earrings - Tutorial by Rena Klingenberg - wire wrapping

Your wire should look something like this:

Easy Bird’s Nest Wire Earrings - Tutorial by Rena Klingenberg - wire wrapping

We’ll use one wire end to wrap around the jump ring nest frame.

We’ll use the other wire end to attach the seed bead eggs inside the nest.

So thread one wire end through the jump ring nest frame:

Easy Bird’s Nest Wire Earrings - Tutorial by Rena Klingenberg - attaching wires to nest

Snug the jump ring nest frame against the wire twists that are just below the wire loop.

Then wrap the wire end around the nest frame:

Easy Bird’s Nest Wire Earrings - Tutorial by Rena Klingenberg - attaching wires to nest

Continue wrapping the wire end messily around the nest frame:

Easy Bird’s Nest Wire Earrings - Tutorial by Rena Klingenberg - attaching wires to nest

. . . until you get all the way around the nest frame.

Then wrap the wire end around the wire twists you made below the wire loop:

Easy Bird’s Nest Wire Earrings - Tutorial by Rena Klingenberg - attaching wires to nest

Use your wire cutter to cut off the excess wire.

Use your chain nose pliers to tuck the cut wire end securely at the back of the nest.

Now move to the remaining long wire end.

With the wire loop at the top of the nest, bend the remaining long wire end down the back of the nest, so that the wire sticks out at the bottom of the nest:

Easy Bird’s Nest Wire Earrings - Tutorial by Rena Klingenberg - attaching wires to nest

String two of your seed bead eggs onto the wire:

Easy Bird’s Nest Wire Earrings - Tutorial by Rena Klingenberg - attaching bead eggs to nest

Bend the wire so that the seed-bead eggs settle inside the bottom of the nest:

Easy Bird’s Nest Wire Earrings - Tutorial by Rena Klingenberg - attaching bead eggs to nest

Wrap the wire end around the nest frame, right next to the beads.

After that wrap, the wire end should be pointing upward:

Easy Bird’s Nest Wire Earrings - Tutorial by Rena Klingenberg - attaching bead eggs to nest

String the third seed bead egg onto the wire end:

Easy Bird’s Nest Wire Earrings - Tutorial by Rena Klingenberg - attaching bead eggs to nest

. . . and settle it into the nest:

Easy Bird’s Nest Wire Earrings - Tutorial by Rena Klingenberg - attaching bead eggs to nest

Then wrap the wire end around the wire twists you made below the wire loop, and use your wire cutter to cut off the excess wire.

Use your chain nose pliers to tuck the cut wire end securely at the back of the nest.

When you’ve finished both nests, they may look something like this:

Easy Bird’s Nest Wire Earrings - Tutorial by Rena Klingenberg - attaching bead eggs to nest

Now it’s time to add an earring finding to each nest.

Use your chain nose pliers to twist open the earwire’s loop:

Easy Bird’s Nest Wire Earrings - Tutorial by Rena Klingenberg - attaching earwires to nests

Then string the wire loop of one nest onto the earwire’s open loop.

Use your chain nose pliers to twist the earwire’s loop shut again:

Easy Bird’s Nest Wire Earrings - Tutorial by Rena Klingenberg - attaching earwires to nests

Your finished Easy Bird’s Nest Wire Earrings may look something like this:

Easy Bird’s Nest Wire Earrings - Tutorial by Rena Klingenberg

Easy Bird’s Nest Wire Earrings - Tutorial by Rena Klingenberg

Easy Bird’s Nest Wire Earrings - Tutorial by Rena Klingenberg

FREE - Get 7 Super Jewelry Making Hacks

Get Rena's 7 Super Jewelry Making Hacks, plus the Jewelry Making Journal Newsletter - all for FREE.

We Respect Your Email Privacy

Click Here to Leave a Comment Below 35 comments