Junk Jewelry is a creative book for the packrat in all of us that features 25 clever projects, turning everyday objects into funky pieces of jewelry. Junk jewelry, also known as trash-to-treasures, can be an acquired taste and may not be to everyone's liking, but those who enjoy it will find much to like in this handy paperback. (COPYRIGHT: I'm so sorry to have to put this here, but I've had trouble with online content theft. Readers are welcome to print my articles for their personal use, but I do not allow my text or photos to be copied to anyone's online site. No one may use my content without written permission from me.)
There is no denying the appeal of recycling odd bits of broken material, thrift shop finds, and household items. Not only do such things make for cheap supplies, making them into jewelry keeps them out of the landfill and repurposes the objects in an entirely new way. There is something uniquely creative about taking the drab, mundane, and even ugly and transforming it into a striking piece of jewelry whereas most jewelry makers can put together beads, findings, and other traditional elements and make them look good. The further one can transform pieces of junk into elaborate pieces of jewelry, the more intriguing the result. I mean, talk about a conversation piece! When worn with panache, junk jewelry has a witty, kitsch, young-at-heart appeal.
Junk Jewelry offers 25 projects complete with easy to follow instruction, simple line drawings, and full-color photos of the finished result. Here are the projects as follows. Some I found underwhelming, and most I liked, but even the ones I that I found unappealing taught me something in terms of why something DOESN'T work (in my opinion).
The Trashy Treasure Necklace – strung with trinkets like a charm bracelet. Great use for single earrings. You can accessorize to a theme if you like (nautical, hardware, plastic gumball trinkets)
Antique Hardware Bodyware – a necklace made from metal fittings (drawer pull) on a circular neck wire. Nice.
Hanging Chain Necklace – short lengths of chain on a neck wire. A bit underwhelming.
Stationery-Store Foldback Clip Neck Ring – makes a short collar out of office supply binder clips from which you've removed the clip handles. Cute if you can find them in pastel colors rather than basic black. See my article Project Binder Clip Neck Ring where I attempt this fun project.
Button Brilliance – buttons stacked into a cylinder and threaded together make a gorgeous necklace, especially in gradations of the same color such as faux ivory or pearl. This is the most gorgeous project in the book.
More Button Brilliance – Cute necklace made with unusual flower-shaped buttons topped with a bead.
Roadside Regalia Tail Light Belt Buckle – cute belt made of bright red plastic plus a tail light buckle.
Hobby Store Letter Earrings – Very simple dangle earrings made of children's instructional letters of plastic or wood.
Multicultural Pendant – Made with a red leather thong strung through a Chinese coin with hole in the center. Very simple and appealing.
Keyboard Couture – clip on earrings made from computer keyboard keys. Not many wear clip on earrings (or cufflinks) anymore, so you can adapt this project to a ring or bracelet instead.
Game Piece Glamour – a bracelet made with brightly painted wooden beads alternating with dice. You can also use dominoes, scrabble tiles, checkers, mah jong tiles, or Legos.
Label Pins – a very simple project. Slip odd, funky labels or cutout ads into a plastic identity-badge with a pin on the back. You're done. If your label is a different size, laminate it and glue a pin-back to it. A bit underwhelming
Flower Scour Power – these are cute. Take mini-scouring pads (the curly metallic kind) and accessorize with a few leaf shapes cut from a fine-gauge brass (or a one-time roasting pan of heavy foil) in the same color to make rosette pins. You can also make a necklace of just the metal leaves strung at intervals on a leather thong, which is very pretty.
The Ribbon Shop Medal – cute project. Use bits of grosgrain fabric or ribbon to dress up a coin, a stray earring, or even a fork to make a faux medal for some very creative and quirky pins to wear.
Fab Fabric Beads – a necklace of beads wrapped in fabric. A bit underwhelming.
Arm Candy and Ear Candy Too – earrings and bangles of wire accessorized with hard candy such as Valentine's Day hearts with printed messages, or Lifesavers candy. Seal the candy with clear nail polish. Very cute.
Highly Strung Wire Necklace – necklace made with loops of colorful electrical wire passed through large beads. A bit underwhelming.
Motherboard Earrings – These earrings are made from flexible plastic strips of circuitry. These strips can be found inside computer keyboards. Cute.
Tile Mesh Bag Earrings – dangle earrings made from pieces of metallic mesh handbags from the 1970s disco era. To me, these are attractive but not very interesting because they don't like "junk" or found objects.
Safety Pin Cuff – exactly what it sounds like: 81 safety pins of the same size, threaded through top and bottom to stack atop each other and form a wide cuff bangle. Interesting and kind of striking.
Key Tag Creations – necklace of key tag squares connected with jump rings. Underwhelming. The pink plastic key tag with pink plastic chain link is cute like a delicate ID bracelet.
Champagne Top Necklace – champagne foil bottle top seals complete with wire mesh are strung together for a necklace. I don't much like the look of it. It also looks uncomfortable to wear.
Here Today Gone Tomorrow – seashells drilled with a hole and strung on a thong. Underwhelming.
The skill level is beginning to intermediate. My only regret is that none of the photos shows people actually wearing this stuff. I always like to see how jewelry looks on real people, especially "junk jewelry" which can sometimes look improbable on the page. However, I recommend the book for any jewelry maker who wants inspiration from the objects that surround us. Junk Jewelry is available at Amazon.com through this link: Junk Jewelry: 25 Extraordinary Designs to Create from Ordinary Objects
