Make a Bracelet from a Knitting Needle

Vintage plastic knitting needles get a new modern look when they are made into a bangle bracelet. With a few simple tools you can upcycle old knitting needles into fantastic jewelry.

Materials
Vintage plastic knitting needle(s)
Pot of boiling water
Bracelet mandrel

Step 1
Select a plastic knitting needle that you want to turn into a new bracelet.

Step 2
Boil a pot of water.

Step 3
Place the knitting needle into the water until it softens and can be formed, about 5 to 10 minutes.

Step 4
Measure your wrist and gather a mandrel in the appropriate size. Women have different wrist sizes, so it is important to measure for size before forming. Chose your mandrel based on the size you need. An average bangle size is about 8" inner circumference (20 cm inner circumference). If you do not have a bracelet mandrel, look around your house for a substitute. Baseball bats, certain canned goods, jars, a fallen tree limb and similar round objects can all be used a mandrels in a pinch.

Step 5
Carefully remove the knitting needle from the water using tongs or tweezers and wrap the knitting needle around a mandrel to the size you desire for your bracelet.

Step 6
Allow the plastic to cool on the mandrel or, to hasten the process, remove the bracelet from the mandrel and place it in a bowl of cold water to set.

Step 7
Adjust the bracelet. If you are not happy with the shape you can put the knitting needle back into the boiling and repeat the process until you are pleased with the result.

Warnings
Note that the colors may change or fade when boiled. You can use the same technique to make a knitting needle ring. Substitute a ring mandrel for the bracelet mandrel.

If you do not like working on your stove top, you can preheat an oven (or toaster oven) designated solely for crafts to 350 degrees F and then bake the knitting needles for about 5 to 8 minutes, or until the plastic is pliable.

Take care when working with boiled water.

Be sure to use proper exhaust and ventilation when heating and forming plastic.

Do not reuse pots for food after using for crafts.

Take care that knitting needles used are not sharp. File away any burrs, sharps or items that could catch clothes or injure the wearer.

Make a Necklace from Paper

Before: Wire

We made this necklace using the same basic technique we used yesterday to create our paper earrings. We used scrap paper (in hot pink!), rubber and copper sheet metal to create beads that we joined using copper wire.

After: Paper Necklace by GeltDesgins.c

Materials
Pink paper
Rubber
24-gauge,  22-gauge or
20-gauge copper sheet
18-gauge round copper wire

Tools
Wet/dry sandpaper
Disc cutter or jewelry saw
Doming block and hammer
Flex shaft, Dremel or drill press
Micro-drill bit set (#61-80)
Half round file or needle files 
16-gauge cup burr and flex shaft or wire rounder


Step 1
Make the beads. Cut, form and drill the copper disks. Stack the copper disks, paper and rubber and bind by wire wrapping using 18-gauge round copper wire.

Step 2
Attach the beads as you make them. We wire wrapped each bead together but you could change the design by adding links between the beads. 


Continue until the chain is the length you want. Hint: make a shorter version if you want to create a bracelet.


Step 3
Make and attach the clasp. We made a hook and eye style clasp using 18-gauge round wire. If I were to repeat, I would likely use 16-gauge copper wire for the clasp.


Related Tutorials
Make Earrings from Paper
How to Use a Jewelry Saw
How to Use a Disc Cutter
How to Dome Metal 
How to Use Sand Paper
How to Use a File for Jewelry Making
How to Select a Cup Burr
How to Measure Wire
How to Measure Drill Bits
How to Smooth Sharp Wire Ends

Blog Index
NJAD Index by Topic
NJAD Index by Type of Jewelry

Further Reading  
"500 Necklaces: Contemporary Interpretations of a Timeless Form (500 Series)"; Lark; 2006.
"Complete Metalsmith: Professional Edition"; Tim McCreight; 2004.

Day 62.  Month 3. Jewelry from Found Objects.  $ spent to date: 0
Found materials: scrap copper, rubber, paper
New Jewelry a Day.

TGIF!!

Make a Necklace from a Credit Card

Canceled or expired credit cards are great sources of raw material for jewelry making. The plastic is durable but light weight. Many credit cards have interesting pictures or designs on the face of the credit card. I recently canceled a credit card that had a scene of mountains on it. Since my daughter and I already demonstrated how to make a gift card into a bracelet and earrings, I thought this time we would use the credit card to make a necklace.

Materials
Credit card, gift card or other plastic card
18-gauge round copper wire 

After: Necklace by GeltDesigns.com

Tools
Disc cutter
Size 50 drill bit
Drill (Flex shaft, Drill Press or Dremel)
Center punch or automatic center punch
Round nose pliers  or 3-Step wire looping pliers
Chain nose or bent nose pliers
Wire rounder or needle file or cup burr and flex shaft


Step 1

Cut the credit cards

Cut the credit card into disks using a disc cutter, craft knife or scissors. We cut three 3/4-inch disks and four 7/16-inch disks for our necklace.

Step 2
Use a center punch to mark the disks where you want to drill holes so the drill bit will not slip when you drill.

Drill holes in the disks

Step 3
Drill two holes in each disk.


Step 4

"B" links made from copper

Create links to link the plastic disks. 

We used some "B" links that were left over from the from our copper bib necklace project on December 21, 2010. We made the "B" links for that project and then decided to use "S" links instead, so we had a bunch already made. We used round nose pliers  to form the "B" links by hand and then adjusted the links as needed using chain nose pliers. We then filed the end of the links smooth using a cup burr and our flex shaft.

Clasp by GeltDesigns.com

Step 5 
Make the clasp.


Step 6
Assemble the necklace.


Step 7
Check the necklace for any sharp spots and file until smooth.

After: Necklace by GeltDesigns.com

Related Tutorials
How to Make Earrings from a Credit Card  
How to Make a Bracelet from a Credit Card 
New Jewelry A Day: Make a Bracelet from a Gift Card
New Jewelry A Day: Make Earrings from an iTunes Gift Card
New Jewelry A Day: Make a Bib Necklace from Washers
How to Use a Disc Cutter How to Drill 
How to Drill Acrylic
How to Use a Dremel to Make Jewelry
How to Use a Flex Shaft to Make Jewelry
 

Back: Credit Card Necklace by GeltDesigns.com

Further Reading
"Fabulous Jewelry from Found Objects: Creative Projects, Simple Techniques"; Marthe Le Van; 2007.
"Beaded Jewelry with Found Objects: Incorporate Anything from Buttons to Shells";  Carole Rodgers; 2004.
"Junk to Jewelry: A Step-by-Step Guide to Using Found Objects in Jewelry You Can Actually Wear"; Brenda Schweder; 2007.
"Cold Connections"; Tim McCreight (DVD)

New & Noteworthy
"Jewelry from Found Objects";  Heather Skowood; 2011.


Day 47.  Month 3.  Jewelry from Found Objects.
Found materials: credit card
New Jewelry a Day.

Turn a Glass Jar into a Pendant

Before: Blue Jar

When I first saw this jar, I loved the color. The weight of the jar convinced me it would be great for jewelry making.

Mark the jar

At first, I thought I would use my ring saw to cut the bottom of the jar into the shape of a heart. That plan proved problematic when I tried to cut the jar. The ring saw did not have enough space to cut the jar... and the jar was a tad thick and acting quite uncooperative to cut the top off using only a glass cutter. I was frustrated, so I did what I sometimes do when I am frustrated with a glass project: I made the glass jar into frit.

After: Necklace by GeltDesigns

After making the jar into frit, I fused the glass into three glass beads and strung the beads on a leather-like stringing material.

Materials
Glass
Leather, imitation leather or other stringing material
Seed beads

Tools
Glass fusing kiln
Fiber paper
Fiber rope


Step 1
Make the jar into frit. Turing a jar into frit is a fancy way of saying I broke the jar into tiny pieces that I could use to fuse into another shape. The technique requires a hammer and something to catch the small pieces. I use a box  constructed of wood. After cleaning the glass, I put the glass into a plastic bag to keep the glass clean. I place the glass into the wood box and then hit the glass with an old, heavy sledge hammer until the glass is the size I want.

Great therapy... in addition to being a great way to recover glass for use in kiln forming. :)

Step 2
Fuse the frit into a flat piece of glass. I placed the glass frit into the kiln in a pot and then let the glass melt down through the pot onto the bottom of the kiln (prepared with kiln wash, of course) until the glass was flat.

Step 3
Make the beads. Cut the glass into six strips the size you want for your beads. Place three of the strips on a piece of fiber paper on the shelf of your glass fusing kiln. 

Put two strands removed from fiberfrax rope on each piece of glass to create channels for the bead holes. Note that the fiberfrax rope will be thicker than you want to create channels to serve as a bead hole. You will need to unravel the rope and take a strand or two to use to create the holes for the beads. You can purchase fiberfrax or ceramic fiber rope at most stained and fused glass suppliers or online from companies like Slumpy's or Delphi Glass. Wear a dust mask when working with fiber rope to protect your lungs.

Place another piece of glass on top of each glass strip. You can use a drop of glass fusing glue to hold the beads in place while you place the glass into the kiln (and while firing), but be sure to allow the glue to dry before firing. Fire the beads in your glass fusing kiln until fully fused.

Step 4

Stringing material

Remove the beads from you glass fusing kiln once the kiln reaches room temperature. Clean the beads and remove the fiber rope from the holes in the beads.

String the Beads

Step 5
String the beads on your stringing material. My daughter and I used imitation leather from a large spool, but almost any stringing material can be used. Cut a long piece of stringing material. Feed on one fused glass bead to join both ends of the string. Feed on a seed bead on each string. Feed on the next fused glass bead. Repeat until all three beads are strung and separated by seed beads.

Step 6

Tie the ends

Test the necklace to be sure the length works.

Step 7
Tie a square knot below the fused glass bead on both sides of the string. Allow about a 1-inch tail for each end of the string.

Step 8
Measure about 1-1/2 inches above the fused glass bead and make a square knot. Measure another 1-1/2 inches above the first knot and create a second square knot.

Related Tutorials
Make Your Own Fused Glass Bead
How to Make a Fused Glass Bead
How to Acid Etch Glass Beads  

Further Reading
"Warm Glass: A Complete Guide to Kiln-Forming Techniques: Fusing, Slumping, Casting";  Philippa Beveridge, Ignasi Domenech, Eva Pacual; 2005.
"Contemporary Warm Glass: A Guide to Fusing, Slumping & Kiln-Forming Techniques": Brad Walker; 2000.
"Fused Glass Handbook"; Gil Reynolds; 1987.
"Fuse It - 18 Fused Glass Projects": Petra Kaiser; 2007.
"Innovative Adornments - Introduction to Fused Glass & Wire Jewelry";  Jayne Persico; 2002.
"Richard La Londe: Fused Glass Art and Technique"; 2006.

New & Noteworthy
"Contemporary Fused Glass";  Brad Walker; 2010.
"Microwave Kiln Techniques: For Fused Glass Jewelry, Stained Glass Projects and Silver Clay"; Geneva Perkins.

Day 43.  Month 3.  Jewelry from Found Objects.  
Found materials: Glass jar
New Jewelry a Day.