Sunday, August 16, 2009

Friendly Plastic Earrings

One of the wonderful things about working with Friendly Plastic is how such simple techniques can transform the foiled strips of Friendly Plastic into really eye catching pieces. Take these earrings for example - their striking appearance belies their simplicity.

Both pairs are examples of marbling but using different tools to create the effect.

The first pair was marbled with a marbling comb and the second pair with a needle tool to create two totally different looks.

You can use either a heat gun (as in the first pair) or the griddle method (used for the second pair) to melt the strips together and then slowly draw the tool of your choice through the surface. I used a cookie cutter to cut out the leaf shaped earrings but the chevron earrings are made by layering black and gold rectangles together which have been allowed to melt into each other before using the needle tool.

To finish off the earrings and to add extra bling I've added some Swarovski crystals because they work so well with Friendly Plastic.

Whether you're making your jewellery pieces for sale or as gifts for family and friends, it's worth giving presentation some thought. These earrings are part of a gift enemble so I've displayed them on black cardboard stamped with gold ink - it really makes them pop. You could then place the whole card in a plastic sleeve. But as these earrings are a special gift I've also decorated a coordinating tin to slip them into which apart from providing a beautiful case to store the earrings in, it also gives the whole gift a very professional look!

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