Make an easy feather necklace

Since we're getting close to Christmas I thought I would bring you another feather craft tutorial. Do you collect discarded feathers too? If you're anything like me you probably have a vase or box of feathers that your chickens have dropped and you picked up. These are great for making feathers crafts and today I want to show you how I make feather necklaces. 

These would make a super quick Christmas gift!

I've already written a bunch of tutorials for feather décor that I've posted. I started with feather filled ornaments... many years ago. Those became pretty common so I  also made a more elegant beaded feather ornament. These are nice to make because you can use them year round, depending on what types of beads you use. I have one hanging from the rearview mirror of my truck.

I also did a few other decorations using feathers. First I applied feathers to a candle holder. Those were really easy to make in different sizes and shapes, so they match all décor styles. I also wrote a tutorial on making feather trees. Those went over really well, especially with my cat! lol You'll have to click over to the post to read the cat vs feather story.

I wanted to make something that can be gifted and worn this year so I settled on feather necklaces. 

Chicken Feather Necklace DIY

This year we're making a super simple and elegant wearable feather decoration! We're just stringing the feathers up with beads and necklace attachments. It's not difficult but I'll try to explain as well as I can for the first timers (plus I'll add tutorial links to real jewelry people!)

So let get started.

Supplies 

• Feathers
• Assorted beads, I bought glass beads but any kind you like is fine!
• Jump rings, hoops, crimp tubes with loops and headpins
• Needle nosed or round nosed pliers and a set of wire cutters, or a set of jewelry making tools

I picked everything up at Walmart, but a craft store will also have everything you need. Beads do seem a bit cheaper at Walmart though, unless you can catch a sale at Joann's or Michaels. Walmart also seems to have a lot of multi-packs, like the hoops I bought which are great when you're only going to make a few items...but I also like to go to WM because I know there's one in every town so everyone can recreate my projects!

If you want to stack feathers, you need to pick large beads with large holes. Smaller ones will still work for one or sometimes two feathers, but you won't be able to get multiple feathers in there. It all depends on the look you're going for though. Same with the crimp tubes, larger sizes will fit more feathers. I have the small and only can fit 3 per tube.

I bought a pack of earring hoops that had 3 different styles/sizes and these work great for necklaces, though you can buy even larger necklace hoops if you like. 

How to put the feathers on a crimp tube

Start by stacking your feathers in bundles. Try single feathers, groups of 2, 3 or more. Stack the smaller feathers on the outside with the larger feathers to the back or in the middle, depending on how many you're stacking.  

Once you get the feathers stacked you can push them through a bead and then put the feather ends in the crimp tube and close it. Or, you can just put the feather ends directly in the tube and close it. You want to crimp all three pieces in with a pair of needle nosed pliers. 

You'll need to attach a jump ring to the loop on the tube to hang it directly on a necklace or on a hoop. You'll need a larger size jump ring to hang it directly on the necklace, which is why I bought the multi pack. The smaller ones hook to the loop, the larger ones directly on the necklace. 

I'm no jewelry expert though, so I know that while I can do it...it's hard for me to describe, so I'll add links to complete tutorials when I can.

To add a jump ring

You can hang the feathers in the crimp tubes directly on these by using a jump ring. Open it slightly with your pliers, insert the crimp tube loop, then insert the hoop. Close the jump ring with the pliers. This is how you will add a ring to your headpins also. Or you could close the headpins directly on the hoop, as I did on the one necklace.

Here is a good jump ring tutorial.

Add beads to your feather necklace

To add some bead dangles to your necklace you'll need the headpins, wire cutters and round nosed pliers. I have used needle nosed pliers for this, it just might not form a perfectly round loop. 

You'll start by choosing a headpin with a flat bottom to keep the beads from sliding off. Stack your beads in the order you like. Trim your pin end with wire cutters leaving about 1/4" of wire sticking out. Turn this piece under and back towards the beads by grabbing it with the round nosed pliers and turning inwards. If you need to trim it a little more, you can do this after the loop is formed.

There's a great tutorial from a bead site here if I didn't explain the right! lol

Add these to your hoops with the feathers using jump rings. Don't forget to add a jump ring to the top of the hoop too. You'll need a larger size jump ring for this, which is why I bought the multi pack. The smaller ones hook to the loop, the larger ones directly on the necklace. 

Now just thread a necklace through and you're done! Wasn't that easy?

If you have cats, you'll want to store your necklaces out of their reach or they might steal them. I'm sure you know how I found that out!

Want to learn about raising chickens? Click here for my most read chicken keeping articles!

~L

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