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.

Make Leather & Lampwork Glass Bead Earrings

Before: Imitation Leather

I made the beads for these earrings years ago in a lampwork class. The instructor asked the class to make a basic blue bead and then add dots. Making the first bead was easy. Making a matching second bead...not so much. The beads sat in a bin in our workshop until we decided to use the beads to

After: Earrings by GeltDesigns.com

make them into earrings for our New Jewelry a Day project.

Materials
2 lampwork glass beads (or beads of your choice)
Leather, imitation leather or other stringing material
2 fish hook brass ear wires (or findings of your choice)

Step 1
Make or select two lampwork glass beads.

Step 2

Slide lampwork bead on leather

Cut a piece of imitation leather, leather or other stringing material of your choice five inches long. Slide the ear wire onto the cut stringing material until the finding is centered. Fold the stringing material in half so the finding is at the top of the folded material.

Step 3
Measure 1/2 inch and make a knot below the finding so the finding is secured in a loop.

Step 4
Slide the lampwork bead onto the stringing material until it sits just below the knot.

Tie knot below lampwork bead

Step 5
Make a second knot just below the lampwork glass bead.

Step 6
Trim the stringing material, if needed, so that the fringe at the bottom is even and about 1-inch long.

Step 7
Repeat to make the second matching earring.

Related Tutorial
How to Make an Ear Wire Jig

After: Earrings by GeltDesigns.com

Related Projects
Make a Glass & Knotted Leather Necklace
Make a Ring from Gimp
Make a Leather & Button Bracelet

Further Reading
"Leather Jewelry: 30 Contemporary Projects (Lark Jewelry Books)"; Nathalie Mornu; 2010.

Knots & Knotting
"Mod Knots: Creating Jewelry and Accessories with Macrame"; Cathi Milligan; 2009.
"Decorative Knot Craft: Over 20 Innovative Knotting And Macrame Accessories"; Kim Sang Lang; 2008.
"Elegant Knotted Jewelry: Techniques and Projects Using Maedeup"; Becky Meverden; 2009.

Lampwork
"Flameworking: Creating Glass Beads, Sculptures & Functional Objects";  Elizabeth Mears; 2003.
"The Complete Book of Glass Beadmaking";  Kimberley Adams; 2005.
 "Beads of Glass"; Cindy Jenkins; 2010.
"Making Glass Beads"; Cindy Jenkins; 2004.
"Creative Glass Techniques: Fusing, Painting, Lampwork" Bettina Eberle; 2005.

Lampwork Jewelry
"Creating Lampwork Beads for Jewelry"; Karen Leonardo; 2007.
"Making Handmade Lampwork Beads & Glass Jewelry"; Danny Ronat, Hava Ronat; 2008.


Day 46.  Month 3.  Jewelry from Found Objects.
Found materials: imitation leather, lampwork orphan beads
New Jewelry a Day.

Make a Pendant from a Bottle

Before: Beer Bottle

Many folks look at the labels when selecting beer and wine. Not me. I confess I can not help but look at the glass of the bottle. I consider the shape of the glass and the color. Glass from bottles is a great raw material for making beads, platters and other art work. Reclaimed glass from bottles can be melted using a torch or a kiln.

For this project, I cut off the neck of a beer bottle one of my son's friends recommended after a semester in Europe. He wanted to try the beer. I was psyched by the rich green color of the bottle.

Melting reclaimed glass is always unpredictable. The color often changes when heated and formed and the temperature needed to form the glass is always uncertain. This glass proved a success. The pendant took exactly the form I hoped and the color stayed as rich and pretty as it was in the store.

After: Pendant by GeltDesigns.com

Materials
Glass bottle
Stringing material
Sterling silver end caps
G-S Hypo Cement.
18-gauge sterling silver half hard round wire.

Tools
Glass fusing kiln
Ring saw
Kiln safe bisque mold
Kiln wash/ shelf primer

Step 1
Drink the beer and wash out the bottle. Set aside. It is not a good idea to operate saws or kilns after drinking alcohol.

Cut top off bottle with saw.

Step 2
Cut off the top of the bottle using a ring saw or glass cutter.

Step 3

Clean the cut glass.

Clean the glass with glass cleaner to remove residue from sawing and prevent devitrification when kiln forming the reclaimed glass.

Step 4

Put the glass in a mold.

Place the clean glass in a mold prepared with kiln wash. Use of a mold is optional. You can melt the glass on a kiln shelf prepared with kiln wash, but use of a mold will ensure that the pendant has a nice shape. We used a round mold and we cut the bottle slightly off center so the pendant would melt a round, thick piece with a hole that is off center.

Step 5

Place the glass in the kiln

Place the mold in the glass fusing kiln. Since I did not know the COE of the glass, I could not predict the fusing cycle. As such, I decided to use a small top loading kiln, so I could watch the glass closely and see when the glass had melt to the point I liked. For this project, I raised the kiln to 1500 degrees F and held it for eight minutes. When I opened the kiln to check the glass, I found that the glass was not melted enough, so I repeated three times until the glass melted into the shape I liked. The process was prolonged because the temperature of the kiln dropped each time I opened it to check the glass.

Note: Always put your kiln on a fire safe work surface and wear protective eye goggles when looking into a hot kiln.

Step 6

Anneal the glass. Lower the kiln to the annealing temperature(about 960 degrees F) and hold the kiln at that temperature for 10 minutes to anneal the glass.

Step 7
Allow the glass to cool to room temperature. Remove the glass from the kiln and wash off any kiln wash on the glass.

Add stringing material

Step 8
Cut a piece of stringing material to the length needed. Pull the stringing material through the hole in the glass and tighten.

Step 9
Add findings. We used some sterling silver end caps that we added to the end of the imitation leather stringing material using pliers. We secured the end caps with a drop of G-S Hypo Cement.
We added a hook style clasp made from 18-gauge sterling silver half hard round wire.

Related Tutorials
How to Melt Wine Bottles into a Bead
How to Melt Wine Bottles into a Cheese Tray
How to Melt Wine Bottles into Jewelry
How to Melt Wine Bottles for Lampwork
Make Your Own Hook & Eye Clasp
Make Your Own "S" Clasp
How to Make a Simple "S" Clasp (with or without Beads)  

Further Reading
"Glass Kiln Casting with Colour de Verre - 10 Projects for Frit Cast Jewelry, Plates & Bowls"; Jayne Persico; 2007.