Saturday, May 2, 2009

Shrink Plastic Jewelry, etc.

I wanted to share my first attempts at shrink plastic jewelry today. I spent a few hours with a co-worker/friend yesterday so we could play with the idea of using shrink plastic pieces in jewelry.

The yellow piece was die cut from yellow shrink plastic and rubber stamped with the "Love you much" stamp using stays-on ink prior to baking. We discovered during this process that not all shrink plastic works the same. The white, printable paper seems to shrink up the best in the oven. The colored sheets had a tendency to curl up and stay that way unless you take them out and flatten them with a spatula.

Even though the yellow "Love" piece is a little mishapen, I still love how it looks and the vibe it gives out. I added a chain with a brown tint that I had picked up at European Papers and just a couple of dangly beads.

I made the "Live & Let Live" piece at least a month ago and just recently used a dremel tool to round the edges since the square edges were rather sharp. I added some silver chain, square swarovski components, a few jump rings and a magnetic clasp. I'm not sure if you can tell from the photo, but I also used a coat of craft varnish on this piece as well as a bit of diamond dust glitter!!

I also made a ring in a couple different shades of blue that goes nicely with the bracelet, but is not made with shrink plastic. The focal bead is a swarovski rivoli! I had picked up a plastic gumball machine type ring recently for fun and loved the color of blue it had in it. A local bead shop rep helped me find a bead that was reminiscent of the plastic one. I am loving the sparkles in this ring!!

As always, let me know what you think or if you have any other ideas for making shrink plastic jewelry!! Have a good one!!

8 comments:

ohdawno said...

Your shrink plastic bracelets are adorable - I'm convinced you are able to take anything and turn it into a lovely piece of jewelery!

I have ideas floating around my head, but need to get my hands on some of the plastic, and every time I see another project with it I grit my teeth that I don't have any at hand!

Anonymous said...

Go, Shrink Plastic!
Looks like you guys had a lot of fun and I look forward to seeing future experiments!

Anonymous said...

I love both shrink plastic pieces! Guess I'll be making at trip to Dick Blick this week ... ;o) And, yes, I'd love to get together & play!

WireMySoul said...

I've been seeing a lot of really great shrink plastic ideas lately and am really keen to revisit this childhood craft! I really like what you've made here! Like Dawno, I don't have any! I wish I could get the stuff where I live, curse my small town shopping limitations. I've just got to order some online! Thanks for the inspiration!

The Beading Gem said...

Love what you did here. Another technique to try for sure! Pearl

Cindy Lietz, Polymer Clay Tutor said...

I really like the 'Live and Let Live' bracelet!

I take it you printed that image onto the plastic. It looks like a photo. I also guess that must be printed on an ink jet and not a laser printer since the heat from the laser printer would probably shrink the plastic in the machine!

Lisa Crone said...

Thanks so much! I'm glad you like these and can't wait to work on some new pieces! Cindy, you are correct! The "live and let live" bracelet was made by adding a text box with words to the photo in Word and printing onto the white, printable shrink plastic. I punched the stringing holes witha regular sized 1-hole punch prior to baking. Since I sort of smeared the image before varnishing, I used the glitter to cover it up a bit. :)

Bead Up said...

Wow, I haven't seen what we used to call "friendly plastic" in a long time. I wonder where I can get it -- and if it would be just as fun today as it was when I was a kid, or frustrating?!