Repurposed Costume Jewelry:

With only a few tools, you can turn old, unwanted costume jewelry into a piece of art! 

What you will need:

Costume jewelry (scour your own jewelry box or go to Goodwill or similar)

Small jewelry pliers and nippers

Epoxy Glue-Clear, such as Weld, or Gorilla Quick Set Epoxy (These can be found in grocery stores, art supply stores, Amazon, etc, and you want the easy kind that has a little plunger to release the two compounds, and then you apply with toothpick)

Shadowbox frame (I prefer frames that have some sort of fabric covered backboard, such as velvet or burlap)

Toothpicks

A piece of cardboard or disposable plate for mixing the epoxy

Gloves

Phone or camera to take a snapshot of your design prior to gluing

After you have chosen your jewelry, use the pliers to gently pry your pieces apart. Jump rings often connect the pieces and it’s easy to open the ring and remove each piece, but in some cases, you have to gently twist to disconnect. And try to choose pieces with a flatter back. They will adhere better.

Once you have your deconstructed jewelry, start playing around with the pieces, exploring different combos until you see a design emerge that you like. Once you have the design, remember to take a photo! This is important because you will want to work quickly. Most epoxies dry within 5 minutes, and you will need to move the pieces when you start gluing. Once that piece hits the fabric with the glue you don’t want to have to move it, so you can reference the photo for where to go next in the design. Images below show one complete and in the frame, and one work in progress before framing.

Epoxy dries quickly, but I like to let it cure 12-24 hours before hanging.