Craft Connections And Making Jewellery

This past week has been an interesting one on the crafting front, I seem to be meeting more like minded people by the minute! Firstly I went to paint ceramics at a new place in Aberdeen called “I Heart Art” where I met Janet and Mitchell who run the company. They are bursting with ideas and interested in networking and developing the crafting scene in Aberdeen. You can read more about what they do here

http://www.i-heartart.co.uk/

My friend Jenna wants to ice her way into making a cupcake business and my friend Kirstie has decided she wants to jump aboard the crafty boat and get selling and making too. So I have spoken a lot this week about crafts. It’s great to have ideas bounce off other people and hopefully to pull together and create opportunities for each other.

My business opportunity brain has also been switched on and without saying too much hopefully I will be having more opportunities to sell my work, but more on that when things are more cast in stone.

With all these craft ideas floating around my head I thought it was about time I started to produce some more work, so I have been scribbling away!

My project on the go right now is shrink plastic jewellery. These little plastic delights are based on designs and drawings I have done. In the past I have made them using permanent Sharpie pens, however I have decided to broaden my shrink plastic horizons and use coloured pencils. It almost seems like a step back into my childhood using coloured pencils but I have to say I am happy with the results! The colours turn out well and the colour choice is much larger than the Sharpie counterparts, not to mention not as pricy!

But some of you may be thinking, what the hell is Shrink Plastic? So I usually begin trying to explain that Shrink Plastic is something you probably used as a kid…..maybe in school. You draw on it, put it in the oven and it shrinks down. Now this is where I get about 30% of people going "oh yea I remember" whilst the other 70% just look confused. So to give you an idea this is what it is like!

First of all you grab a piece of shrink plastic and draw your design on it, there are various types of shrink plastic but I like to use the frosted type for the majority of my projects. The thing to remember is that you need to draw a much larger image than you want the final item to be as when it goes in the oven it will shrink (hence the name).

Once drawn, carefully cut out and punch holes in where you would like to attach the piece to either a necklace or earrings etc

Pop them in the oven and watch them curl! This may seem a bit strange but don’t worry! Even though they are curling and flipping about they will flatten themselves out! Then when you have taken them out of the oven, quickly place a heavy book on top of them to ensure they are flattened! Hey presto! Once cooled you will need to glaze them to seal in the coloured pencils, however you can’t do this with Sharpie pens as they just seem to run... boo.....

If anyone is interested in trying it let me know and I can always give you some more detailed advice. The shrink plastic comes with useful instructions on how to use it and what temperature to set the oven to. Most of it however is trial and error I have to say. It's easy to get a hold of it too, I get my Shrink Plastic from Hobbycraft.

So without further a do here is what I am working on, these have recently been shrunk and glazed and are waiting to be fixed onto a necklace or have earring backs glued onto them.

Everybody loves a good cupcake!

I prefer my popcorn salty to sweet. What about you?

An assortment all waiting to be made into earrings

Bring on the pendants waiting to be made into necklaces

Couple of pieces planning on becoming brooches

And these are just a tip of the Shrink plastic iceberg. Now I'm off to do some more doodles and rack up a large electric bill!