Turquoise Clay Bead Necklace – Tutorial

turquoise clay bead necklace diy

Here I made a turquoise clay bead necklace with beads that resemble turquoise semi-precious stones using a technique called antiquing.

I used polymer clay to make the beads, it’s a wonderful medium – easy to work with and doesn’t need a lot of equipment. You can create so much with it, my kids and I often sit for hours shaping figures, food, and animals that we then use as charms for necklaces and bracelets.

Polymer clay is hardened by baking in the oven and once baked in can last for a long time.

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Cardboard Shoulder Bag – An Eco-friendly, Fun and Low Cost Bag To Make

At the moment I feel like reusing and recycling as much as I can. So here I made a cardboard shoulder bag which is surprisingly sturdy and cost me very little to make.

I waxed the card and varnished the paper for protection, so hopefully, I can use it for a some time.

Cardboard shoulder bag

I threaded it with paper string to stay with the theme. The lining is from my spray painting tank tops projects, I wrote about them here and here. The bag won first price in the cardboard contest on instructable.com, so exciting.

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Batik Leather Wallet – Decorating Leather With The Batik Technique

batik leather wallet

I love decorating leather. This batik leather wallet is the result of my recent discovery that leather can be decorated using the batik technique.

I was inspired by photographs in a leathercraft book from the 70s where someone applied paint to leather with the batik technique, when I saw the photos (black and white, unfortunately) I just had to try it out.

I experimented with different designs and colour combinations using up all my leather scraps in the process (and a lot of dye) until I had a surface I liked and which I stitched into this wallet.

batik wallet open

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