The great thing about making jewellery is that there are so many materials, techniques and styles, which means it’s going to take me a while to explore them all and hopefully I won’t get bored too quickly. This week’s project is a little bit unusual! Have a look:
If you were born in the 80s, you will almost certainly remember shrinkie plastic! That magical plastic that you coloured in with some felt tip pens, then got your Mum to put in the oven and sat in excited anticipation, staring at the oven door… and then when she got it out, there was your magically shrunk bit of coloured plastic, ready to turn into a keyring or necklace, or whatever took your fancy! Quite honestly, I’m blown away by what you can make with a bit of plastic and your oven!
This project was really quirky and a lot of fun, and gave me the opportunity to put my Brother Scan N Cut (great Christmas present from my husband, by the way!) to work. The sakura pendant is actually a template supplied with the Brother Canvas software – it’s a really great software, mostly with templates for cutting paper and turning them into greetings cards or wall decals. However, I came across a template for a necklace and decided to get hold of some shrinkie plastic and give it a go!
The Canvas software is really easy to use (and if you’ve got a Cricut or another machine, then I’m sure you can replicate something very similar). You upload the cutting templates to your machine, and set it off to cut. I’ve been pondering for a while whether I can use the Scan N Cut in my jewellery making, and the real benefit is going to be in getting pretty intricate shapes cut by the machine, consistently. I’ll be honest, my hand drawings are terrible and none of the lines are every the same size or thickness, but the machine takes that headache away (although, it’s a bit fiddly trying to smooth out the lines… and again, I suspect practice will make perfect!)
I’ve listed my materials and instructions below, in case you want to have a go yourself! And if you’re more of a visual learner, I’ve included a short time-lapse video, showing all the different components being made. Have fun!
Tools
- Round-Nose Pliers
- Chain-Nose Pliers
- Flat-Nose Pliers
- Nylon-Jaw Pliers
- Wire Cutters
- Rubber / Nylon hammer
Materials
- Pendant – 1 sheet of frosted shrinkie plastic and 1 sheet of clear shrinkie plastic, 3x 4mm flat back beads
- Decorative Spirals (x2) – 7.5cm of 1.2mm (18g) copper wire
- Wrapped Link & Chain (x4) – 6cm of 0.8mm (20g) copper wire and a 4mm bead (I used aqua dyed jade)
- Chain (x40) – 2cm of 1mm (18g) copper wire (obviously more / less, depending how long you would like your necklace to be – the total length of my necklace, excluding the clasp, is 41cm)
- Clasp – 2.5cm of 1.2mm (16g) copper wire and 7.5cm of 1.2mm (16g) copper wire
Description
1. Making the Flower Pendant
As I mentioned above, I made the pendant following a template from the Brother Scan N Cut Canvas software. It’s a pretty simple process – you download the cutting pattern, arrange it on the page, then send over to the machine for cutting. The four flowers were cut from the frosted shrinkie plastic and the “backing plate” was cut from the clear shrinkie plastic. Each sheet took approximately 2 minutes to cut. You end up with 5 pieces of plastic like this:
To colour the plastic flowers, I scraped off some pink pastel into a bowl, then used a cotton wool bud to brush the pastel dust on.
It looks really faint, but it darkens up in the oven!
Once you’re happy with the flowers, you need to bake them in the oven – one by one! The reason for one by one is that you want to curve each flower while it’s warm. If you do them all at the same time, the last ones will have cooled before you dome them. The backing plate needs to be flat, so pop the piece on a folded tea towel and then place a heavy book on top (I finally found a use for our copy of “The Big Fat Duck Cookbook…”)
Each piece is baked in the oven for 2-3 minutes at a temperature of 165C or 325F.
After baking in the oven, they shrink down to this:
Cute, huh?
To give you an idea, the large flowers started out around 6cm wide and reduced down to 2.5cm wide; the small petals started at 4.5cm and went down to 1.5cm; and the backing plate went from 12cm down to 6.5cm.
The next thing to do is to glue the pieces together. I’ve used a hot glue gun, but I really wish I didn’t… it was messy and difficult to control the amount of glue I was using. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any craft glue to hand, so I made do. I strongly recommend you use a craft glue and a toothpick to dab on just the right amount!
The two large flowers are glued together in the middle, with the petals slightly off set and topped off with one of the flat-back beads. The smaller flowers are topped off with a flat-back bead. Then the large flower is glued to the middle of the backing plate, and each of the smaller flowers are glued to the right and left of the large one.
I think it looks quite sweet… I love that there’s a little pop of colour!
2. Making the Chain
As always, I’m making my own chain… I can’t quite explain this one, as I know it’s not cost effective! I’m mainly doing it for the practice of making the chain links and plier control!
I wanted to make something quite delicate and started off using the 0.8mm (20g) copper wire. But, I soon discovered that the holes in the pendant were too big for such a delicate jump ring.
I switched up to a 1mm (18g) wire, and that worked out better. To make the figure-of-8 jump ring, cut a 2cm length of wire. Using the round-nose pliers, make a loop in the wire towards the centre of the wire (i.e. the 1cm mark). Do the same on the other end, bending the wire the opposite way.
To make the loops more circular, you use flush wire cutters to cut off a small piece of wire off each end. You want the end to be parallel with the central part of the wire. Finish off by using the round-nose pliers to bend the loop round so that the wire end is touching the middle.
Once all the links are made, you can join them together by opening up each one and threading them together, and then closing them again. Remember to bend the wires towards you when you open the link rather than pulling it open.
3. Decorative Spirals
The decorative spirals were made from 7.5cm 1.2mm (16g) copper wire. A small, open spiral was made on one end, and a larger open spiral was made on the other end.
Both spirals were hammered flat, and then sanded with 240 / 500 / 1200 grit emery paper.
4. Wrapped Link & Chain
I made 4 wrapped links out of 0.8mm (20g) copper wire (I went a little thinner here to make sure the 4mm bead could thread on).
To make a link, cut the wire to 6cm. Measure in to 2.5cm and make a loop with your round-nose pliers. Grip the loop with a pair of chain-nose pliers (take care to hold the pliers at 90 degrees to the wrapping wire). Using flat-nose pliers, wrap the shorter wire around the longer wire, 3 times to secure. Trim the end, and secure down with chain-nose pliers so that it doesn’t catch on anything. Thread on a bead, then measure 3mm away from the end of the bead. Repeat the process for making a loop. I have a short video on YouTube about how to make this type of link: Wrapped Link & Chain
Remember not to close your link if you’re planning to thread something on! (I forgot and had to make the link all over again..!)
5. Clasp
I chose to make an S-Clasp for this design (following instructions from “Wire Jewelry Masterclass” by Abby Hook).
One end is made from a piece of 2.5cm 1.2mm (16g) copper wire, and follows the process for making a figure-of-8 link (see above). However, rather than 2 even sized loops, you need to make one loop bigger than the other. So instead of bending your first loop to the centre point, bend the wire so that the end touches 2cm away from the end.
The S-Clasp is made from 7.5cm 1.2mm (16g) copper wire. Start by forming a small loop at each end of the wire, using round-nose pliers, and with the loops facing in opposite directions. Then measure 5mm away from one loop and bend the wire over the thickest part of your round-nose pliers. Do the same on the other end, but facing the opposite direction.
Both pieces were hammered flat and then sanded with 240 / 500 / 1200 grit emery paper. I think it’s quite an elegant looking clasp (this is pre-hammering!)
Once all the components are made, it’s a simple job of putting everything together!
Love this necklace!