My younger son’s preschool class has 13 children, and I wanted the teacher’s Christmas gift to be personal and to reflect that. So, I thought a bird’s nest necklace would be perfect because she is kind of like a mother bird to her class, and they are her little birds eager to learn.
So, here’s a quick how-to:
Grab your jewelry tools, some 26 gauge silver-plated wire, and tiny pearl-like beads (I used the smallest ones I could find).
Cut about 2 1/2 feet of wire and string your pearls on (I used 13 to represent each student in the preschool class), leaving about an inch at the beginning.
Now fold them around into a circle. Once they’re in the shape you like, I twisted the piece of wire at the beginning and the long piece together a few times and cut off that short piece. It’s time to wrap the wire around and around until you’ve got your nest the way you want it. Then take you wire and loop it under the wires and pull tightly three times. Then move around the nest from where you just did that, and do the same. Now, go 90 degrees and do the same thing again, and go across from that one, and do the same one last time. Phew, that was totally redundant (sorry about that!).
In short, you will end up with you nest being secured together at four different points.
Now that your nest has been secured, take you remaining wire and loop it one time around the top portion of the wire nest, and pull it up, and wrap around the base of your loop several times. Then cut the remaining wire and tuck the sharp part away into the nest.
Now your bird’s nest can hang from a chain.
The great thing about this project is that there’s no right or wrong way to make it. So, just go with it. Birds’ nests aren’t perfect, and each one is unique. That’s the best part!
Now, go have a Coke. It’s Santa’s drink of choice
