DIY Jewelry

Okay, so I have yet another not-really-travel-related post. This time it's DIY jewelry. And again, I'll make my point that if you save a little money in one place, you can put it towards travel! I actually did this project over six months ago but kind of forgot about it and wasn't sure if I should post it but I thought it was worth sharing.

What you'll need:
oven-bake clay (from Michaels, under $5)
eyepins
chain
bead glue
gemstones/rhinestones (you know, sparkly stuff)
other useful tools: plastic knife, toothpicks, tweezers, scissors, pliers, ruler

The package of clay will tell you what temperature and time to use to bake the clay.

I started by shaping my clay around the eyepin, leaving the loop sticking out (so I could later attach a chain to it).

I decided to make a fang and I knew I wanted to bejewel it so I used a plastic knife and tapped all over the clay to give it a rough surface. I'm not sure how well you can see it in the photo but there are little dotted indents all over. I thought the rough surface would give the glue a little something more to cling to.

Then I laid out all my pieces on a foil-lined sheet pan. I measured them all and made notes as to when they should come out of the oven, since each piece was a different size. And as you can see, I made a few fangs, two smaller ones and one big one.

I'm not sure if it's because I baked my pieces too long or if my oven got too hot but the white clay ended up brown. It didn't matter much to me because I was going to cover the whole thing in gems anyway. I started by sticking on a few of the bigger pieces, and then the medium sized pieces, and then filled in the empty spaces with the smallest gems. I used tweezers to apply the gems so I wouldn't get my fingers all glue-y.

And tada! This is the bigger one that I used to make a necklace. I just attached a chain to the loop of the headpin sticking out.

It's so wonderfully sparkly, isn't it?

I also made this antler key chain. I wanted to dangle it off of a plain-looking purse to give it some pizzazz. I just used three coats of gold acrylic paint before applying the gems at the top.

Cute! It would make a nice Christmas ornament as well.

Hope you're inspired to make some fun jewelry of your own.