BOGO! Earrings Turned Pendants

 Lucky YOU! It's browse one get one time! Not only am I going to show you how to turn an earring into a tree pendant, but I am going to show you another one you can make out of the second earring!

I have seen a lot of these trees on pinterest, and was raiding my old jewelry and found a pair of gold hoop earrings that I am fairly certain I never wore.  Big shocker there.  Anyway it got me to thinking about all the misfit hoops out there that lost their buddy and people toss out.  Well...DON'T!  Let's upcycle them into something wearable!

You need a hoop earring, copper colored wire, and small green beads.  That is all.  Ok fine scissors or wire cutters.

I cut a length of wire, maybe 6-10 inches or so and started making my tree.  I don't like to work with long sections of wire and prefer to do it bit by bit.  I wrapped it diagonally on direction and then diagonally the other multiple times to form the two branches and begin to form the base.  As you can see I wrapped the wire around the parts of the base to pull them in together.  There is no set method on how you need to make a tree, so if you find a different pattern that is easier for you, by all means use it!  Basically, step one is just make a tree shape.

Next, I cut a new piece of wire to begin forming my canopy.  I strung various green beads onto the wire and worked in small sections, beading about 8-15 beads and wrapping the wire around the hoop a few times to secure them in place.

DO NOT limit yourself to just putting these across the front.  Send some strands across the back, and send others from back to front, etc.  This will give it more of a 3D look when it is finished. 

 Speaking of, here is my finished tree. 

Hold the phone! Ok..so this is a tree...on an earring...case closed, I have crafted a tree ring.

No but seriously You can see the little guy here next to his buddy that is going to be a ridiculously awesome bird's nest in oh...say...4 pictures? 

You don't have to stick with green, you can do a fall tree, you can do an apple tree, you can do a cherry tree...do whatever you want.  I like green, so my tree is green.  I also like trees.

I also like free jewelry.  This project has me written all over it.

Now, completely free of charge I give to you this ADDED BONUS of a bird's nest for our second earring.  To start, I wrapped my wire around the side of the hoop, then across the span of the hoop, around the other side, and repeat repeat repeat.  After at least 6-10 rounds of this, I started wrapping it down the sides and around at an angle to start building the sides of the nest.  In hindsight, the only thing I would change is making the nest cover the earring closure...but that honestly did not occur to me at the time.

Sometimes with wire wrapping like this, it is simpler to get the wire where you want it if you wrap in complex patterns.  Counterintuitive right?  Simpler due to complexity?  No but seriously once you get the first part on tight and secure, you can lace others through it and it will keep them where you want them.

If it is giving you extreme issues, defer to our good friend E6000 and let him keep those pesky wires in place.

 Next, I began wrapping the wire "around and down" to start building the bowl shape of my nest.  Instead of around the sides of the hoop, I went around the sides of the already placed wire, across the bottom of the hoop, up and around the opposite side, and repeat repeat repeat.

Don't wrap all of your wires going the same way.  Cross some under, cross some over, wrap some around more times than others or around the bottom and some not, that way you will develop a nest-y look.

Once you have this bowl shape, continue alternating between wrapping the sides around and wrapping the undersides of the bowl up and around. 

Remember, the nest does not have to be perfect and every ounce does not have to be filled in, the gaps will actually give it character and charm.

Here is my finished nest.  LIke I said I like to leave gaps, I feel like it is more natural looking than perfection would be.

After you get this done, cut a new length of wire and secure it to the bottom of the base of the nest, and then stick the remaining wire up through the nest from the bottom.  Thread a bead onto it (I used shiny bronze beads) and then lace the wire back through the base, securing the bead in place. 

Continue this process with however many beads you want to make it look like eggs in the nest.

Next, I wrapped the top part where the earring closure is with bronze wire and hung a bird bead from it.  I would prefer to use a larger, bronze, vintage looking bird charm for this project, and will be swapping them out when I go to Hobby Lobby next.  However, I put this tiny white bird on to give you an idea of what can be done.

I attempted to make the top of it look like leaves and a branch using green beads and wire, but I really was just not feeling it.  You may find a way to make it look very cute and crafty, and if so more power to you. 

I may come back to that idea later, but so far I really like this pendant as is.

Some other things you may consider: wrapping the entire hoop in copper wire to make it look like a basket (easter-wear, anyone?), putting in the birthstone colors of your children for the eggs, using different colors of wire and white beads and making a SAILBOAT PENDANT!! (that's a cool one if I do say so myself), putting an owl charm on this and making it an owl's nest without the eggs...

There are really a lot of cute ideas that you can do with these, and you should not feel limited to trees and birds.  Anything you can think of that you can break down into basic shapes can potentially be fair game for this type of project.


Here they are both together.  I am so glad that we all sat down and had the talk about the birds and the trees.

Hehe!


Happy crafting!