DIY Geometric gold-leaf necklace.

Today I want to show you how you can make this easy and quick geometric necklace.

This would make a nice little Christmas present for a girlfriend or a young fashionable family member....

I have been wanting to try my hand at some DIY jewellery making for ages, and have been hoarding bits and pieces to do so for a while, but don't worry, all the basic parts of these are readily available at your local Hobbycraft...

You will need:

Gold chain

Gold jump rings

Gold clasps

Oven-bake polymer clay

Rolling pin

Baking paper

Sharp knife

scalpel

Gold leaf

Craft PVA glue

Masking tape

Pencil

Soft brush

These will only take you a couple of hours to make in total, and will cost you less than £20 for all the materials(including the gold-leaf)....and you will have loads left over for future projects...

This is really simple, but here's how I did it:

Roll out your polymer clay (I've used white, but there is loads of colours available) to about 2-3 ml thick...It will help later if you transfer your rolled out clay onto a piece of baking paper at this stage.

Use a sharp kitchen knife and cut out some geometric shapes...I just free-handed mine, but you can of course plan ahead as to what shapes you will need...Then use a pencil or similar to make little holes in your shapes for hanging onto the chain later...Make sure the holes are as close to the edges as possible, and if this distorts the shape or lifts up at all, amend as you see fit....

Place them, nice and flat on a baking tray (this is where it helps having some baking paper underneath)

Cook in your kitchen oven at 150 degrees centigrade for about 5-8 minutes...Keep an eye on them, as you don't want to overcook the pieces...

 

When you take them out, cover with another piece of baking parchment and place a heavy book on top, to ensure the clay sets as flat as possible...

Leave to cool.

 

 When your clay pieces has cooled down, stick a piece of masking tape down on your work surface, place the clay piece on top and trace around the shape with a pencil...

Now you can draw your design onto the masking tape, before cutting out the bits you want to gold leaf with a scalpel...Then stick your cut masking tape onto the clay piece, and paint on a thin layer of PVA glue...when you remove the masking tape you should have your design marked out in glue on the shape...

Now you are ready to add some bling, in form of some gold leaf:

 

Gently place a sheet of gold-leaf on top of the glue...tap down using a soft brush and leave for about 30 minutes...Then use one of the separating paper sheets in your gold leaf book(or some baking paper)....place it on top of your gold leaf and using your fingers, gently rub in the gold leaf...Leave for a couple of hours to fully set before brushing away any excess gold leaf using a soft brush to reveal your gilded design...

I did lots of different shapes and designs....while I was at it like...

 

Then I got out my chains and other little jewellery bits and played around with the possibilities...

Then I cut the chain to size..(a good way to measure the length needed is to use another necklace as a guide)

I settled for this combination (above).

You can clearly see in these pictures how the chain and clasp is going to get attached...

 

Before I could attach the jump rings and chain, I sanded the edges and corners of my now gilded clay pieces down, so that they were more rounded...(I didn't want anybody wearing the jewellery to hurt themselves on the sharp edges..)

Then I used a pair of jewellery pliers to attach the jump rings, chain and clasps..

It helps to have 2 pairs for this as it can be quite fiddly...

If you don't have any special jewellery pliers, normal pointed pliers would work just fine as well. 

And there you have it...a funky geometric gold leafed clay necklace...

(And yes...that is one dodgy selfie, I agree)

Here's another one I did, with a "matching" pair of ear-rings...

This is such an easy make....have fun with it and get creative with the shapes and design...the possibilities are endless...

I have really enjoyed making these, and I hope the girl I am giving this to for Christmas will love it!!

I will be back with another post tomorrow, as it is Saint Lucia Day, to show you how it is celebrated in Norway....All going well here in the Nostalgiecat kitchen, I will also post a recipe on the traditional saffron fragranced buns to celebrate the day with...

xxx

June