Hi, everyone! I’m Michele, and I blog over at The Scrap Shoppe.
I love crafting with all types of media from paper to wood to fabric.You honestly never know what you will find on my blog when you come to visit, but I can guarantee it will be something crafty! I love trying to come up with original projects that I haven’t seen done before. And today’s craft is no exception! We’ll be making a Natural Wood Statement Necklace!
To make this necklace you will only need a handful of supplies:
Small branches of varying diameters
Dremel or some other tool to cut the wood
Backing for your necklace
Clear spray paint
Adhesive Chain
I started out by gathering a few different branches from around the yard. I wanted to be sure I chose ones that weren’t exactly the same so I would have some contrast later when putting the necklace together. I put the branches in my potting shed a week before I planned to do the project so they would be nice and dry when I was ready for them.
I used a cutting tool on my Dremel to cut the branches into disks of varying thickness.
Unfortunately I didn’t have quite the right cutting attachment (it wasn’t meant to cut wood) so it left all of my disks with burn marks. No worries! I had another attachment for the Dremel that sanded those burn marks right off.
You can see in the bottom right photo above the huge difference sanding the disks made!
The varying heights of the disks give a great 3-dimensional effect when laidd out!
You have options for the next step. Choose the type of media you want to use behind your necklace. I tried laying the wood disks out on a piece of brown felt and a piece of transparency. I preferred the look of the transparency and seeing the space between the disks. It keeps everything looking more natural!
For my transparency, I used a piece of adhesive-backed film that I found at Hobby Lobby. I cut a piece of the transparency that would fit the layout I had designed for the necklace.
Peel off the white backing of the transparency exposing the adhesive and start laying out your disks in the pattern you want for your necklace.
Once all of your disks are on the transparency, trim the edges with a pair of scissors (above photo with arrow on the left). Go back and further trim the transparency with an X-acto knife (above photo with arrow on the right). You don’t want to see any of the transparency peaking out around the edges of the outer disks.
You can now pick up the disks as one big piece thanks to the adhesive on the transparency sheet!
(Note: If you decide to go the route of using the felt backing, simply use some adhesive such as Beacon’s 3-in-1 or a hot glue gun to attach the disks to the felt.)
To prevent the wood disks from getting scratched or possibly falling apart in the future I gave them 3 good coats of Krylon Gloss clear spray paint.
The clear paint gives the wood just a bit of shine.
Add some adhesive (I used Beacon’s 3-in-1) to each top corner wood disk to attach your chain.
Adjust your chain length to your styling, and add a necklace clasp as you would any other necklace.
I love the natural look of this necklace! And to think its upcycled from things around your yard you would normally just put into a brush pile makes it even better. A huge thanks to the CSI girls for letting me share this project with you! I can’t wait to see what everyone links up for accessories week. The possibilities are endless!
So creative, Michele! What a great way to use natural elements!
Wow, Michele! I cannot believe you cut all those on your own!
This is very cool!
Just as I was wondering where you got the wood discs, I saw you cut your own!? How cool is that! Great necklace.
No way! Michele this is genius!!
I love it! It’s so much fun to wear natural elements. Thanks so much for the how-to, I’ll be linking.
Wow, i LOVE this! I am definitely going to have to make one of this! Great idea!
Oh my gosh Michele this is the coolest necklace EVER!!!! Anthro is so going to be calling you to create these for them.
I seriously love it!
Michele!
What a cool necklace. I love it. And it’s so unique. Awesome!!!
xoxo
Jen
Wow! This was a creative idea! Wood? How cool is that!
this is AWESOME!! I love nature-inspired crafts, and I’m always looking to bring the outdoors indoors – thanks SO much for this tutorial!!
That is awesome. I like the use of natural materials. You are so talented girl.
This is awesome, and so original. I love it
Great idea! I’m definitely inspired.