Bless Your Nest! - Bird's Nest Necklace Tutorial

So I decided to make a bird's nest necklace...because I saw it on Pinterest.

"diy {bird nest necklace}" - Original pin from Sarah Ortega.

It seems like my friends are in the baby-having stage of life these days.  Which is a fabulous stage, if you ask me! 

There are babies everywhere!  Have you noticed?  I hadn't.  Until I had one of my own.  And now I see those little angels all around.  I guess its like when you get a new car and then everyone on the road is suddenly driving the exact one you have.  

Please tell me this happens to you too.

Anyway, a precious friend had just told me she was expecting miracle number two. Then I had a lengthy discussion with another dear friend who is contemplating having a baby (translate: I am begging her to have a baby-she will be an amazing mother!).  

Then I saw these adorable little bird's nests and I had to make them.  Like yesterday.  Because they are such a sweet way to represent your little family and keep them close to your heart.  

And seriously, I went to Michael's the same day and bought the wire and beads.  Couldn't wait to make this!

Here's what you'll need:

Beads of your choosing (seed pearls for me) and some jewelery wire (I bought 18 gauge silver wire-a mistake).  And you'll need a pair of needle nose pliers.  I forgot to put them in the pics!

Ok so I think I've mentioned I have a little problem with lazy.  I see these little gems on Pinterest and in my haste to make them myself, I often neglect to read the instructions.   As in I never read the instructions.  Which is why I bought 18 gauge wire instead of 24 gauge, which Sarah recommends.  

That means I couldn't get the wire to thread through the beads (the smaller the gauge the thicker the wire)!  When will I learn?  Probably never.

So what to do...

Improvise!  The beads came on a thin plastic string.  I just used it to tie three beads together.  If you buy the correct size wire, you can just thread the beads that way. 

I just knotted the string around the beads.  

Next I wove the wire between the beads.  Be sure to cross the beads on one side only.  This will be the unattractive back side of the necklace.  You don't want wire all over the front.  It should look like little eggs in a nest, not a mine field.

Once you have the wire through the beads, start to wrap the wire in a circle around the bead cluster.  You can make your nest as thick as you want.  Once you have the desired thickness, you can wrap the wire around the nest for added detail.  Like so:

Attach a jump ring before you twist the wire closed in the back.  Or you can just twist your wire in such a way so that you make your own jump ring (this is the part that the chain will go through).  

One mistake I made that really bugged me when I gave this to my friend was that I made the jump ring so that it would lie flat against the chest.  It should be perpendicular to the chest so that the necklace will lie flat. 

Also, my wire was ridiculously thick!!  I couldn't get it to bend properly in places.  This was super annoying.  Buy the proper gauge, people!

I am really loving Sarah's blog, by the way!  She is super crafty and she gives really thorough tutorials.  She even sells some items in her Etsy shop, Poppy & Pine.  

She is out of these lovely necklaces at the moment, but no worries.  You can make your own!!  

This project gets a big A+!  It cost less than $5 for the wire and beads and I have plenty left over to make several more necklaces.  This was so much fun for me.  I feel like these are going to be the next big jewelery craze.  

Better get busy ladies!