How to Make Jewelry With Ceramic Tiles
With the right tools and safety precautions, you can cut ceramic tiles into smaller pieces and incorporate them into jewelry design. This means one ceramic tile can be used to make multiple jewelry items. This method uses small hardwood shapes for a bases with pieces of ceramic glued to the tops. These jewelry pieces can be pendants for necklaces, earrings or brooches.
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Things You'll Need
- Ceramic tile
- Small hardwood shape
- Tile nippers or hammer
- White glue/tile adhesive/grout
- Coarse sandpaper
- Protective face mask, goggles and gloves
- Drill with a thin drill bit
- Pencil
- Wood paint/varnish (optional)
- Jewelry hardware
Instructions
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Making Ceramic Jewlery
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1
Use the pencil to draw the shape(s) of the piece(s) for your jewelry on the back of each ceramic tile. Simple shapes such as squares and triangles are the easiest to cut.
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2
Use the tile nippers to cut out the shape. Make sure you wear protective gloves and goggles. Or, if you'd rather, wrap the tile in heavy sacking material and tap it with a hammer to break it into pieces, then choose one of the free-form shapes.
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3
Drill a tiny hole at the top of the small hardwood shape that you will use as the backing for your tile. This hole will be used for attaching jewelry hardware. Sand the surface of the front thoroughly..
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4
Place the ceramic piece on the wood backing and decide the angle and position that you like.
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5
Adhere the ceramic piece onto the wood backing using white glue, tile adhesive or grout. Wipe away any excess from around the edges, then leave it to dry completely.
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6
Paint or varnish the wood around the edges of the ceramic piece and on the reverse if you wish. Add appropriate jewelry hardware so that you can wear the item as a pendant, earring or brooch.
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Tips & Warnings
You can use glass, plastic or any other backing instead of wood--just scuff it up a little with sandpaper where the ceramic piece will be stuck and use an adhesive designed for that material. Use multiple pieces of tile to make a mosaic pattern and fill gaps with colored grout for a more detailed design. Pieces of broken china, marble or mirrors and glass beads can be used for jewelry making in the same manner.
When you break the tile with a hammer, the pieces might have sharp edges--blunt them with sandpaper or tile nippers, or just use non-sharp pieces for your jewelry
References
- Photo Credit Print Perfect Clip Art
