How to Create Your Own Antique Jewelry
If you love the look of heirloom jewelry that features beautiful filigree accents and meaningful tidbits like heritage photographs and cherished metal charms, you can design replicas with your own personal touches. Eye-catching pendants with a vintage feel can be made so that you can wear them on a velvet choker, black cording or a chunky bead chain. By including embellishments that express your personality and pictures of your loved ones, you can design a piece of jewelry that will become a treasured family antique someday.
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Things You'll Need
- Pendant frame
- Ruler
- Patterned paper
- Scissors
- Adhesive dots
- Photograph
- Sequins, rhinestones or buttons
- Dimensional adhesive
- Metal charm
- Jewelry pliers
- Jump ring
- Ribbon, bead chain or cording
Instructions
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1
Measure the front of a pendant-style, metal frame with a ruler. These frames are often sold at scrapbooking, rubber stamping and craft stores.
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2
With scissors, cut a piece of patterned paper to those dimensions and affix it to the pendant with adhesive dots.
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3
Crop a photo to affix to the center of the patterned paper with adhesive dots.
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4
Embellish the pendant with accents like sequins, rhinestones or tiny buttons affixed with adhesive dots.
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5
Seal the project and create a shiny finish by squeezing a layer of glossy dimensional adhesive from the bottle directly onto the surface of the pendant. Allow the glaze to dry overnight.
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6
Add a metal charm to the top of the pendant. After using jewelry pliers to pry open a metal jump ring, thread the end of the ring through the loop at the top of the charm and the loop at the top of the pendant. Use the pliers to pinch the jump ring closed.
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Hang the completed pendant on velvet ribbon, bead chain, black cording or an existing necklace by threading the ribbon, chain or cord through the loop at the top of the pendant frame.
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Tips & Warnings
To create the tiny photo for the pendant, use a home photo printer and or photo lab to reduce and output the tiny image; snip a piece from a small photo with scissors; or use an image clipped from the index print that you receive back with developed photos from a photo lab.
Prevent bubbles when using dimensional adhesive by situating the bottle tip down overnight. When you're ready to apply the glaze, keep the bottle tip-side down and remove the cap. Squirt some of the liquid onto a piece of scrap paper to ensure that there are no bubbles. Keep the bottle tip down and move it over your project, squeezing the bottle slowly to coat the project with a thin layer.
Consider using patterned paper in a muted shade like tan or sage green and printing the photo in sepia tone to give the handmade antique pendant an instant vintage feel.
Choose the metal pendant frame---available in gold, pewter, copper and black---to coordinate with the necklace. Consider black or pewter frames matched to a black velvet cord or a gold frame to hang from a gold bead chain, for example.
If you'd rather not include a photo on the pendant, use decoupage adhesive to affix bits of memorabilia, tissue paper or a dried flower petal to the pendant instead.
