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Home » Junk Jewelry – Cool Jewels – 80% Junk!

Junk Jewelry – Cool Jewels – 80% Junk!

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Junk jewelry

Junk jewelry is one of the most satisfying crafts for me, especially if the bulk of the item is made from junk I would normally throw out.

And if you are a fan of making gorgeous things that have a large percentage of waste materials you might like to read a similar post which you can find by clicking here.

Junk Jewelry is King Queen!

These are the shiny gems I made in my recent YouTube tutorial which you can find by clicking here if you haven’t seen it yet.

The bases for these are made completely from recycled waste card and tacky glue but the junk is cleverly disguised with these beautiful embossed designs.

I’m always amazed at the durability of pendant bases made from junk card, but really, these tough little pendant bezels will surprise you if you’ve never made them before.

DIY pendants

Ok – so the junk jewelry may be cheap to make BUT, I hear you yell, what about the embossing machine? That ain’t so cheap!

DIY Pendants

Yep – this little monster is expensive but if you can find it in your heart to rescue one from the shelves of an Amazon warehouse, you won’t regret it.

Any embossing and die cutting system, such as this Big Shot by Sizzix is a brilliant piece of kit to have in your craft room because it is so versatile.

And it is the main tool used to produce these beautiful pendants.

But if you don’t want one – or can’t justify the splashing of cash – never fear! My next tutorial will show you how you can make beautiful embossed pendants without an embosser!

Sounds weird I know, but you will love the simple trick I am going to show you next time.

If you would like to look at a Big Shot, you can visit my Amazon shop by clicking here. I stock my online shop with the resources, tools and materials similar to, or the same as, I use in my tutorials.

And I try to recommend things I have used. As I have never used anything other than the Big Shot, that is what I have in my shop, however, there are other brands such as Cuttle Bug that you might want to look at.

You will also find embossing folders in my shop.

Meanwhile, if you have a Big Shot embossing machine (or any brand of embossing machine for that matter!) You are in for a junk jewelry treat.

You know those fancy embossing folders that seemed like such a good idea in the craft shop but you never used them? Get them out!

The more fiddly and fancy the embossing folder designs – the better for this junk jewellery project.

A close up of one of the embossing folders I used.
Junk jewelry
Some of the pendants I made for the tutorial.
junk jewelry
A close up on another embossing folder I used.

You may have noticed I have tiny little gold coloured findings on my junk jewelry pendants to thread the hanging material through.

Whether you are using a chain, leather or cord, you will need something to thread it through. These are called bails and you can easily make your own from wire.

Confession time – I was almost totally new to making my own bails!

So all the experienced wire workers out there will cringe when they see my bails made out of entirely the wrong gauge wire (I used 24 gauge and should have used something thicker like 18 or maybe 20 gauge).

I learned how to make these bails for my junk jewelry from a lovely crafter on YouTube, called Candice.

On the video I made, you do see me and my clumsy attempt at making bails very badly with the wrong wire and wrong pliers – but, you should still get the idea of how to make them.

However – I have put a link here to Candice’s video so you can learn from someone who knows what they are doing!

Thank you Candice – I don’t know if you are still on YouTube but your video really helped me learn something.

So that’s it people – go watch my video over on YouTube and have a go at making some junk jewelry!