Two for Tuesday - Bird's Nest Jewelry

Today's Two for Tuesday is not about Chinese Food Jewelry! LOL! You see, I kept seeing different pieces of jewelry that had a bird's nest on them and I thought I should try to make one. So here goes..

For my first project, I attempted to make a ring. I took three 8" lengths of 20 gauge wire and I started to braid them together. I used my nylon jaw pliers to help hold the wires together on one end while I braided.

Next, I used the pliers to squish the braid and make it a little thinner.

Then, I wrapped it around a mandrel to form the ring loop and twisted the ends to hold in place.

I spread apart the 6 wire ends, I'll call them spokes.Next, I took  24" of 20 gauge wire and wrapped one end to the center to secure.

Then, I started to weave the wire in and out of the spokes, like a basket. Eventually, I took each spoke and wove it into the nest as well. For this, I used my chain nose pliers to grasp the ends of the wire as I wove it through the nest.There was no rhyme or reason to the weaves, but that's what  makes it look more like twigs in a nest.

 I used the pliers to help shape the wires into a nest.

For this nest, I wanted to use 3 small cream colored pearls for the eggs. Since the bead holes were smaller, I took a length of 24 gauge wire and wrapped it into the nest to secure. Then, I added the pearls, one at a time. It was like sewing on  buttons.

Here is the ring!

Since it is Two for Tuesday, I made another nest for another piece of jewelry. Because it is not a ring, I took the 20 gauge wire and started to coil it into the nest shape.

Again, I wove it around and through the wires to create a nest. Used the pliers to shape the nest. And added the eggs in.

For this nest, I wanted to make it into a necklace, so I used some Vintaj jewelry pieces. I took the branch and used a jewelry/leather punch to make a hole on each end.

I attached the branch to some chain with some matching jumprings and I even added a soaring bird to one side of the necklace. I hung the nest from the branch with another jumpring. Lastly, a wire wrapped a couple of rose colored glass leaves. I think I may add more birds, flowers and leaves, this necklace is still not done, I think I want to experiment some more.

Here is the necklace and ring set.

Here's another ring I made using a turquoise colored bead for a robin's egg. I also added a tiny set of Vintaj leaves.

Making a nest from wire is actually a great project for beginner's to play with wire. There's no rules to making a nest!LOL!Another fun part is I can adjust the size of the ring, just by twisting the ring.

Thank you for being patient with this post. So sorry some of the photos are a little blurry, I'm still learning how to take one handed photos while holding things in the other hand! And I wasn't a happy camper with Blogger! I tried twice to post this and got booted off Blogger while I was writing. And yes, not all of my writing got saved, so I had to re-write it! I seem to be having all kinds of problems involving computers lately, I think I may have to make me a Computer Angel!

Anyway, thanks for stopping by and Have a Great Fourth of July Weekend!