Make Mixed-Media Jewelry and a Sweet Bag, Too

Last week, we held a free web seminar with three mixed-media jewelry artists from the ICE Resin design team, Mixed-Media Jewelry with the Stars. The live event was extremely popular; if you missed it, the recording is on the Cloth Paper Scissors community under Free Resources/Online Seminars. Not only did we all get a feast of eye candy, we all learn something about putting together an event and the many different possibilities for creating mixed-media jewelry.

Mixed-media jewelry by Kristen Robinson.
Photo by Kristen Robinson.

Not being much of a jewelry maker myself (yet), I was intrigued and even a little surprised by the number of questions having to do with resin, bezels, enamel, found objects, and metals. The artists answered as many questions as they could in the time allowed, but the thirst for jewelry art to wear knowledge was vast!

It occurred to me that artists looking for advice and tutorials on mixed-media jewelry techniques could find most of what they are looking for in one place: on our Craft Daily site. Here are just three examples:

15+ Ways to Alter Metal Surfaces: Cold Enameling, Resin, Powders, Pastels & More! by Susan Lenart Kazmer: Tips for mixing color, preparing the metal, and how to permanently apply color to your metal jewelry pieces.

Mixed Media Making Steampunk-Style Jewelry with Jean Campbell: Learn how you can create your own romantic jewelry using classic Steampunk style. She'll teach you about the jewelry making supplies that you'll need and provide you with endless inspiration and Steampunk jewelry ideas.

Romantic Bezels: Mixed-Media Jewelry From Found Objects with Kristen Robinson. Learn how to transform your found objects, trinkets, and memorabilia into long lasting, strong pieces of resin jewelry.

And there are at least 20 more jewelry and metalsmithing full-length video tutorials on Craft Daily to help you learn how to make wearable art pieces.

I'm particularly charmed by Kristen Robinson's vintage-style pieces. Here is a little tutorial from her on how to make jewelry bags to hold your wearable art treasures.

Felt Jewelry Bag with Heart Embellishment
By Kristen Robinson

Materials:

  • 1 piece wool felt*, approximately 11" x 5-1/2"
  • Straight pins
  • Scrap of red felt
  • Embroidery floss and needle
  • Needle and sewing thread or sewing machine and thread
  • Iron
wool felt jewelry bags by kristen robinson
These jewelry bags can be made from upcycled
sweaters or fabric scraps and are perfect
for enclosing and gifting your mixed-media jewelry.

1. Fold up one end of the felt rectangle, about 4-1/upcycle wool felt scraps into a jewelry bag2" and pin in place.

2. Hand or machine stitch each side of the doubled fabric.

3. Fold the top of the rectangle over onto the stitched end, to make a flap. Press.

4. Freehand cut a heart shape. (This is how I justify all the felt scraps I keep: because I can upcycle them into embellishments.)

5. With the embroidery floss, stitch the heart to the flap. You can use a cross stitch or take a stitch in the middle leaving two long tails on the front side, cutting and tying the thread ends into a knot on the front.

If jewelry is your bag, then I encourage you to learn all you can from these experts for one low-priced subscription to Craft Daily.

P.S. What's your favorite part of making mixed-media jewelry? Or, if you haven't made it, what's stopping you?

Categories

Art to Wear, Blog, Mixed-Media Jewelry

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