Girl Power: April 2012

Nuts, bolts, washers, and screws aren't just for building furniture and equipment anymore. Scrap hardware can also be wired together to make "heavy metal" jewelry in just a few simple steps. You child can let your own personal style shine with a unique necklace or bracelet, and you'll be helping out the environment at the same time! Who knew it was so easy to recycle everyday objects into cute, trendy accessories?

What You Need:

Nuts, bolts, washers, or screws
Thin craft wire
Claps, necklace chain, or earring hooks (found at craft stores)
Scissors
Paper and pencil

What You Do:

Collect and clean hardware that you wish to use in your jewelry.
Next, sketch a design that creatively combines different hardware pieces. Come up with a cool pattern or a unique way of overlapping the different pieces. Coming up with a plan beforehand will make the later stages easier.
Now, lay the hardware out to match your design.
Use the craft wire to hold the hardware pieces together. You can do this by cutting a piece no more than 6 inches in length and wrapping it around two separate pieces of hardware. This should create a tight attachment.
After wrapping the wire, twist the loose ends together and trim any excess wire.
Repeat this process, attaching additional pieces of hardware until the piece is complete.
Attach the finished ornament to the jewelry chain by threading the chain through part of the hardware, or creating a loop of wire and using that as a hook.

An alternative method to wiring the hardware together is threading it onto a necklace chain or string (like beads), and creating a unique pattern in this manner.