Everybody should do something creative! It’s quite the stress reliever and the joy of producing something that is fun, beautiful, and that people actually like receiving as gifts is very satisfying. So here are my latest makes:

Steampunk is a style that is hard to describe verbally – it is mechanical parts, watch parts, keys. It is Victorian Sci-Fi. You’ll see it in modern movies, literature and fashion. Words that describe steampunk are corsets, lace, time travel, metal, futuristically old.

If you’re still puzzled, here are a couple of images to give you the gist:

Can’t say I’m into the fashion, but I love the jewelry and it is so fun to make because you are putting together metal parts in a way that only suits yourself! I started by pinning some of my favorites on pinterest.

So where do you find the parts? Look around your home and collect washers, springs, old watches, and keys. I really hit the jackpot when I walked into an antique store and discovered a desk with lots of drawers. I started pulling out the drawers and found a bag of watch parts. I asked the owner how much the watch parts were, and he said they went with the desk, as he put them in the drawers for interest in the desk. I said I didn’t want the desk but only the watch parts. He was confused and asked why I wanted watch parts. I told him I would like to make jewelry with them. He hesitated for a moment and then said, “The watches were my dad’s and I’d love to know they had a second life. You can just have the watch parts for free.” Yippee!

So after sorting through the pile, I picked out a few pieces and washed them. Here is a step by step of how I made them. The first ones are my washer necklaces: 

I traced around the washers on colorful scrapbooking paper and cut them out and then superglued them onto the washer:

Then I put about 3 coats of a dura-gloss to give them a shiny raised look:

It was easy to slip a cord through the middle.

Next, I superglued watch parts. The above pic shows a washer with an old watchface and springs glued together. I used a metal-gloss product to spray over them to give them a sprinkly shine:

I looked for parts that naturally had holes to slip earring loops or jump rings through them:

 

Here are my other photos. If you are interested in purchasing any of them they will soon be available at our etsy store.

Let me know if you try to make steampunk jewelry! I’d love to hear from you.

Blessings-

Gail