Trash To Treasure Stardust Necklace

Trash To Treasure Stardust Necklace by arteesvida

December 17, 2006, 3:13 am
Filed under: Clay Jewelry, Non-Traditional Jewelry

When I first wrote this article, the ready made necklace bottles were not so readily available as they are now!

Those little sample perfume bottles seems to be another one of those omnipresent junk drawer phenomenon like broken pencils and expired coupons. Instead of buying the expensive mini glass vials for designed for jewelry making, you can easily recycle one of these perfume bottles instead!

Supplies:

Empty sample glass perfume bottle, rinsed out

Small beads, glitter, metallic confetti

Small amount of Black polymer clay

Silver paint

Two split jump rings

Charms and extra split jump rings for attaching them

Sand paper or emery file

Jewelry adhesive such as Jewel Glue or E6000

Chain or cord

Empty out any residual perfume and wash and dry well. Using some low grit sandpaper or even an emery board, gently buff off any writing on the side of the glass vial.

Remove the plastic stopper and discard. Using a small ball of conditioned poly clay, create a new top by pushing in the unbaked clay into the opening creating a seal and a cap. Add a split jump ring to the top of the clay. Carefully pull the clay back out, taking care not to ruin the molded shape you have formed Smooth out any jagged bits of clay, fingerprints, etc. Then bake clay top according to clay manufacturer’s directions.

After the clay is baked and cooled, reinforce jump ring top with a dab of clear drying jeweler’s glue. Once dried, paint top silver (or any other color coordinating to your charms and ephemera).

Fill your perfume bottle with small, shiny bits of ephemera. Since the theme of this necklace was “stardust” I included silver glitter and small glass and lead beads to represent my theme. Other additions, could include bits of confetti, tiny seashells, mini-marbles or whatever else catches your eye and fits inside the vial.

Once filled completely to the top, put a dab of clear drying jewel glue around the edges of your clay top and fit the top back into the bottle.

After the glue has dried, you can attach your charms with jump rings to the jump ring baked into the clay top. Add one more jump ring to use to thread the necklace through your chain or cord.

Although this necklace is long in “down time” (baking, glue drying, etc.) it is a very quick project in terms of actual work….perfect for anyone with a busy schedule, and just a little time “here and there” to devote to a new design!

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