Nuts, bolts, washers and screws aren’t just for building furniture and equipment anymore. Scrap hardware can also be wired together to make punk-style jewellery in just a few simple steps. Your child can let his own personal style shine with a unique necklace or bracelet, and he’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 ear-ring hooks (found at craft stores)
❑ Scissors
❑ Paper and pencil
What You Do:
- Collect and clean hardware that your teen wishes to use in his jewellery.
- Next, encourage him to sketch a design that creatively combines different hardware pieces. Invite him to 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, ask him to lay the hardware out to match his design.
- Make him the craft wire to hold the hardware pieces together. He 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.
- He should repeat this process, attaching the additional pieces of hardware until the piece is complete.
- Make him attach the finished ornament to the jewellery 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.
