DIY | Earrings with Feathers

Spring has come and you will observe that there is a lot of jewellery featuring feathers out there this season.

Meanwhile, we have come up with some inspirational DIY earrings for which we have used pheasant and Guinea fowl feathers.

You can keep them simple or combine them with chains and crystals in order to create our own personal look.
 

If you look at the latest pictures of female celebrities, it seems as if they all were into feathers right now. They wear them on numerous occasions and events. Fashion bloggers can’t get enough of them either, and they are constantly recommending feathers to their readers.

If you want to be a fashion leader, then earrings with feathers are a must. They are the perfect accessory for today’s look, so you really need at least one pair in your jewellery collection. Enhance your ears or earrings like the stars, with delicate, natural feathers. You can attach a discreet, single feather to an earring, or use several in a bundle, or combine feathers with other materials. Now we have long earrings that are literally light as a feather and very comfortable.

Look at Paris Hilton’s fantastic earrings: they have feathers on a long chain at regular intervals.
You can achieve this look with ornamental feathers and a chain. If you’re not quite as brave as Paris, you can make a shorter version, or just settle for a single earring.

Jessica Biel is a big fan of long earrings with feathers and chains, too.

Earrings with pheasant feathers

We used the following materials to assemble these earrings:

• 4 pheasant feathers
• 2 red pheasant feathers
• 6 silver-plated cord ends
• 2 silver-plated connectors, long teardrops
• 2 silver-plated teardrop glass charms, light green
• 1 pair of earwires with eyelets, sterling silver
• 4 x 6cm silver-plated cable chain (24cm in total)
• 2 silver-plated leaves
• 2 silver-plated glass charms, light blue
• 16 silver-plated jumprings (4mm in diameter)
• chain-nosed pliers
• flat-nosed pliers
• jewellery glue

First, glue the feathers into the cord ends. Put a tiny bit of adhesive inside the cord ends, stick one feather into each and press the cord ends together.
Take 4 individual 4mm jumprings and attach the feathers and chains to the connector’s eyelets. You need two sets of pliers to open and close the jumprings. You can see HERE, in a previous blog, how to open and close a jumpring correctly without deforming it.
Next, fix the glass teardrop to the eyelet at the top of the pendant. You will need another 4 mm jumpring for that.

Attach a silver-plated leaf to the end of one chain, and a glass pendant to the other. Once again, you need a 4 mm jumpring for each one.
Finally, fasten the connector to an earwire by opening the eyelet on the earwire just a little, and inserting the connector into it.
 

Earrings with red pheasant feathers 

We used the following materials to assemble these earrings:

• 4 red pheasant feathers
• 4 silver-plated cord ends
• 2 silver-plated connectors, long teardrops
• 2 faceted Swarovski teardrops, green
• 4 x 4.5cm silver-plated cable chain(18cm)
• 2 x 6cm silver-plated cable chain(12cm – same material as mentioned above)
• 2 silver-plated pendants with Swarovski crystal
• 14 silver-plated jumprings(4mm in diameter)
• 1 pair of earwires with loops, sterling silver
• chain-nosed pliers
• flat-nosed pliers
• jewellery glue

First, glue the feathers into the cord ends. Put a tiny bit of adhesive inside the cord ends, stick one feather into each and press the cord ends together.
Take 4 individual 4mm jumprings and attach the feathers and chains to the connector’s eyelets. You need two sets of pliers to open and close the jumprings. You can see HERE, in a previous blog, how to open and close a jumpring correctly without deforming it.
Next, fix the glass teardrop to the eyelet at the top of the pendant. You will need another 4 mm jumpring for that.

Attach the little crystal pendant to the end of chain in the middle with another 4mm jumpring.
Finally, fasten your decoration to an earwire by opening the eyelet on the earwire just a little, and inserting the decoration into it.

Earrings with Guinea fowl feathers

To assemble these earrings you need the following materials:

• 4 Guinea fowl feathers
• 2 brushed rings, gilded sterling silver (25mm)
• 2 x 6.5cm ball chain, gilded brass (13cm)
• 2 x 9cm ball chain, gilded brass (18cm)
• 2 x 7.5cm gilded rhinestone chain (15cm)
• 4 gilded cord ends for the feathers
• 2 chain findings with eye for the rhinestone chains
• 8 gilded bead tips / clamp-ons for the ball chain
• 12 gilded jumprings (4mm in diameter)
• 1 pair of earwires with loop, gilded sterling silver
• 2 faceted Swarovski teardrops, grey shadow
• chain-nosed pliers
• flat-nosed pliers
• jewellery glue

First, fasten one chain finding to one end of each rhinestone chain. Next, attach the clamp-ons to the ends of the ball chains. You can apply a bit of adhesive before you press the chain findings together.

Now you fasten the chains to the ring by using the individual jumprings. You need two sets of pliers to open and close the jumprings. You can see HERE, in a previous blog, how to open and close a jumpring correctly without deforming it.

Then you attach the Swarovski teardrop to the ring by using another 4mm jumpring.

Next, glue the feathers into the cord ends. Put a tiny bit of adhesive inside the cord ends, stick one feather into each and press the cord ends together. After than you fasten the feathers to the ball chains using a 4mm jumpring for each chain.

Finally, open the earwire’s eyelet and insert the ring.

Earrings with circles and pheasant feathers

To assemble these earrings you need the following materials:

• 2 pheasant feathers
• 2 silver-plated cord ends
• 2 silver-plated connectors, circles
• 2 silver-plated jumprings (4mm in diameter)
• 1 pair of earwires with loop, sterling silver
• chain-nosed pliers
• flat-nosed pliers
• jewellery glue

First, glue the feathers into the cord ends. If you like, you can press them together later, so that the feathers don’t fall out. In our illustration, the cord ends are not pressed together.
Fasten the feathers to the ring with 4 mm jumprings. You need two sets of pliers to open the jumprings and close them again. You can see HERE, in a previous blog, how to open and close a jump ring correctly without deforming it.
Finally, open the eyelets on the earwires a little and insert the feathers and ring.

You can make all of the items shown here in silver or gold.

Have fun making your own jewellery!