Bucket list, item #2

I am the accessory queen. A title I embrace fully and whole heartily, and I am not ashamed in the least to call my own. I have never met a piece of jewelry that did not agree with me.

After my trip to China and spending waaaayyyy toooooo much time in the jewelry section of the market I decided I needed to make jewelry making a new hobby.

Now the new hot item in Utah is pendants. These pendants have lobster claw claps on them so they can be enter changeable on a necklace. Some of the pendants are made with trays, and others have the design between to pieces of beveled glass, and soldered together with metal.

Well the soldering project seemed a little overwhelming so I decided to start with the trays. I ordered some tray blanks online and begin to experiment.

Here is the result.

I took scrapbook paper and cut it to the size of the tray, then I "blinged" it out with all sorts of shiny, sparkly things. Now when I first did this in December for my secretaries, I used resin to seal the tray, but I have to tell you resin was a pain the butt to work with. It was messy, sticky, got thick really fast, and it was hard to work into the entire tray. So I got on the Internet to see if there was an easier method, and sure enough there was. It is called "Ultra thick embossing enamel" It is a crystallized substance that you place over the top, once you are finished with embellishment. You place the tray in the oven on about 375 degrees and the crystallize substance melts and leaves a clear sealant over your tray. It takes about 4 minutes. Once the tray has cooled down, its done, no drying time required like the resin.

As you can see I added the lobster claw clasp, along with more jewels to of course add to my bling...


I am totally in love with my new jewelry...however I still want to learn how to bead, and I now want to learn how to make the pendants that have the glass and are soldered together, so alas the bucket list projects continues.....