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Now that I’ve tackled most of my holiday decor, I can finally spend some time making all the Christmas gifts on my list. First, I showed you how to make a holiday banner out of glitter, school glue, and chipboard, which I hung in our living room. Then, I decked out my dining table in jute wrapped Christmas trees. After that, I made some glittery ornaments out of German glass glitter which I used to decorate our Christmas tree. Today, I’m going to share with you how to make your own peacock feather earrings, out of real peacock feathers of course!
Turn Feathers Into Earrings!
It seems like everyone is wearing feather earrings. I know my sister wants a pair, she asked me specifically to make her some feather earrings for Christmas. I was like, easy! Done! Check! Here’s what you need to do:
STEP 1 – Gather your supplies:
- Pliers
- Feathers
- accent beads
- headpins
- crimp beads
- 24g wire
STEP 2 – Trim the feather
With my wire cutters, I measured and cut about an inch above the thick part of the feather. I trimmed off the spare pieces of feather, so only the stem was exposed (sorry, no picture for this step). Then, I grabbed a crimp bead with my needle-nose pliers:
STEP 3 – Apply the crimp bead
Pinch the crimp bead just slightly so it becomes an oval shape (no image for this step). You want to do this because feather stems aren’t exactly round, they’re sort of mis-shapen, and you need to change the shape of your crimp bead so it slides down the stem of the feather.
STEP 4 – Replace stem with wire
Take a piece of your 24g wire, stick it along side the feather stem and inside the crimp bead (above). Then, pinch the crimp bead closed as hard as you can. Why are we doing this step? The purpose is to replace the stem of the feather with the wire, so you can mold it and attach it to an earring form. Once the crimp bead is closed, trim off any excess stem from the actual feather.
STEP 5 – Add accent beads
Now that your wire is acting like the stem of the feather, add some accent beads above the crimp bead
STEP 6 – Wire-wrap above the accent beads with your round-nosed pliers (above)
STEP 7 – Secure the wire-wrap with your needle-nosed pliers (below). Trim off the excess wire with your wire cutters.
STEP 8 – Form 2 ear wires out of headpins
I used a Sharpie pen to form the ear wires. Trim off the head of the pin with wire cutters, then form your ear wire by wrapping the headpin around the Sharpie. I wrote more detailed instructions on how to make ear wires when I made a pair of aqua loop earrings. Attach the ear wire to the wire-wrapped end of the feather.
Repeat steps 1 – 8 and voila! you have yourself a pair of peacock feather earrings! We started with real peacock feathers, and turned them into a gorgeous accessory in 30 minutes!
They’re actually very flattering, and the range of blues, greens, and purples are incredibly eye-catching. Can you believe how easy it is to turn a peacock feather…
into an earring?
It’s really that easy. 8 basic steps and you have yourself a gorgeous handmade Christmas gift. I’m very excited to give these away as gifts to my sisters and cousins. Shhhh! Family, if you’re reading this, don’t tell!
Miss my previous posts in this series? Check them out:
Part 1 – “the Announcement” Part 2 – “Glittery Holiday Garland” Part 3 – “Jute Wrapped Christmas Trees” Part 4 – “German Glass Glitter Ornaments”
