I was in the craft shop of a museum in Glasgow recently and saw some eye catching jewellery made with colourful buttons, so I decided to take a closer look and to see if I could have a go at making them. I made a sketch in my notepad and then when I got back to the craft room got my button box out and had a go at making them. I was surprised how easy it was and how effective they look.
Here's a few that I made earlier... and if you'd like to have a go at making them yourself there's some instructions below (hopefully you can follow them easily, if not drop me a line and I'll help out). The process is fairly easy and they take about 20 minutes to make a necklace.
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Instructions to make the necklace:
What you'll need:
- Hemp cord (or similar)
- Tape measure
- Scissors
- Beading mat (not essential but helps to stop the buttons sliding everywhere)
- Buttons (in the colour scheme of your choice), minimum of about 40 but this depends of the length you want the necklace to be and what size your buttons are (mine are approx. 1cm across)
What to do:
1) Colour selection... if you have a bag of mixed buttons (like I did) then have a go at firstly sub-dividing the colours then seeing which colours work well together... experiment to see what you like before you start threading, its much easier this way round!
2) Wrap the tape measure around you neck to measure what length you want your necklace, add about 10 cm to this length so your not struggling to tie knots at the 'finishing off part of the process' and cut the cord accordingly.
3) Tie a knot about 5cm from one end (any knot will do, just make sure its big enough so that when a button is threaded on it wont fall off the end!)
4) Thread your first button on to the cord, by going up through one of the button holes and then down through the next... thread it right to the end where your knot is.
5) Thread your next button on and slide it all the way along to sit neatly next to your first button, lie your necklace flat and make sure they sit together, not overlapping or with big a big gap. Continue threading buttons until you have 4 or 5 in a row then thread the end of the cord back through as many holes as it will go so that its tidy and secure.
6) Continue threading buttons on as you like, you could try stacking some buttons on top of each other (see the picture below).
Keep going until your happy with the length of the necklace. Hopefully you will have about 10cm of cord left to make a loop out of... if not you've probably cut the cord a bit too short and it could be tricky to get a knot in the end loop...
7) To finish make a loop that will be big enough to go over the first button and tie a knot...
Et voila.... one button necklace! Now go and put it on, and show everybody... and tell them that you made if from my blog! ;-)
Variations of the theme...
- To make your necklace bespoke, you could... leave gaps between the buttons... tie knots between them...add beads... vary the length, enjoy experimenting!
Now to make the earrings:
What you'll need:
- Earring backs
- G-S Hypocement glue (or similar stuff)
- Buttons (single or stacked)
What to do:
- Get the button, put glue on the earring back and stick the button on the front, allow to dry thoroughly before using...(don't be too keen you don't want the earring to be a permanent feature...)
What else...
- How about making a matching bracelet and some earrings....?
Where do I get...?
- Buttons like mine.... try www.FantasticRibbons.co.uk
- Hemp cord, glue and earring bits like mine... try www.crystals-and-ice.co.uk click on stringing materials on the menu bar
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