Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Plexiglass & Shrinky Dinks for Valentine's Day

Okay, I've dug into the vault for these, but I think you are going to like them!

I took a class designing jewelry with plexiglass a couple of years ago taught by the fabulous Tonia Davenport, author of "Plexi-class: Cutting Edge Projects in Plastic".

It was a great experience and many tools were involved such as a jeweler's saw, files, dremel tool, heat guns, alcohol inks, razor blades and lots of other things I had never used before to make jewelry!

I knew I was in over my head, but Tonia was great and there were friends in the class so we had a great time. As always, everyone's project turned out VERY different.

That's pretty amazing considering we were all using the same heart pattern that we cut out of our little plexiglass pieces with a saw.

Here is the end result with a tiny little shrinky dink note attached that I rubber stamped with the word "smile" and then shrunk with a heat gun.

Wow, just talking about it now makes my head spin and I'm feeling pretty proud of myself all over again! :) Yes, friends, a great example of the phrase, "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" or maybe it should be "...in the eye of the creator"!

The other piece shown here was created by Tonia and, in my opinion, perfectly represents valentine's day.

LOVE...

7 comments:

Sarah Sequins said...

I took a class with Tonia a few years ago at the Bead and Button Show, and it was really fantastic! I hope she'll come back to teach again in 2013.

Personally, I love the heart piece you made! :)

Davinia said...

Your piece is gorgeous. And shrinky dinks....such a versatile medium and goes perfectly with the plexi glass.

Tania Tebbit said...

I have seen the book - it would of been great to have a class with the author.

Maryanne said...

I love the heart, and the shrinky dink tag is the perfect touch! You deserve to be proud of yourself!

Lacey said...

I have never used shrinky dinks or plexiglass to make jewelry. I think they could be awesome to work with though. I'd have to find a plexiglass source though because the only piece I have is the one I work with polymer clay on to protect my kitchen table (which is where most of my crafting takes place anymore), and I'm really not sure where to find shrinky dinks, but I'm pretty sure that any craft store would have it right??

Barbara Lewis said...

These are really cool! I love the first one!

Lisa Crone said...

Thanks guys! Tonia is the BEST!

The easiest shrinky dinks to work with are the printable ones that are white. They seem to shrink nice and flat like they are supposed to AND you can print anything you want on them. I've made bracelets using clipart images and also incorporated my personal goals on one as a keychain so I had them with me all the time. VERY fun and versatile! I have seen them at all the big craft stores like hobby lobby, Joann's and Michael's.