Trash to Treasure upcycling comp @ makers online

I heard about the Trash to Treasure competition at makers online. I decided to enter with the following entry below...I love using recycled elements within my work as it really makes you think outside the box sometimes, this necklace was really fun to make and has been inspired by the pieces I choose to use, as is often the case when I make a one-off design. I am always drawn to over the top statement necklaces, so for this one I have made a really chunky piece, with lots of beach bling included. I wanted to create a really summery piece so I choose some bright pieces of Flotsam and Jetsam like the orange reclaimed nylon, forest green cartridges and turquoise plywood.
Everything in the necklace has been reclaimed, even the crystals, apart from the hemp I used which is organic, and some good old fashioned jump rings and picture hooks!
You will need:
One drill
One 2.5mm diamond tipped drill bit
Bowl and water for drilling in
Epoxy glue
Tapestry needles
pliers

Ingredients:
Plywood (found)
driftwood (found)
Sea pottery (found)
Nylon (found)
Pebble (found)
Crystals (reclaimed)
Jump rings
Hemp twine,
BB gun pellets / empty cartridges (found)


Method:
So, I picked some driftwood, some sea rounded plywood and some neutral sea pottery to make up the main part of the pendant. I measured where the sea pottery pendants would hang and drilled some holes in it (not advisable - drilling plywood stinks!). I then glued the driftwood to the plywood using strong epoxy glue (and again smelly), and glued some beautiful sparkly vintage Swarovski crystals onto the plywood.



Then I drilled the sea pottery using 2.5mm diamond tipped drill points, in water (in the little terracotta pot above) and attached it to plywood using gold jump rings...
NB: Don't ever drill sea glass or pottery without doing it in water, it will just shatter, there are loads of tutorials online if you are unsure...

I took the nylon and cut it into some strips, approx 8 inches long, and then sewed and bound the hemp onto the ends by using tapestry needles and created two loops to act as the connecting devise on one end, near the pendant. The nylon is too thick to bend back around itself so I decided to get some hemp on the scene!!!
The clasp is made by taking a beach pebble and hooking it over a larger loop on the other ends...I strung another crystal over the pebble as a little charm....

Next comes one of my favourite parts of the necklace, I wanted this to be a very beach bling necklace, and a while ago I found these BB gun pellets on the beach, which are just empty cartridges from the gun, I thought it would be great to stick crystals in them and add a more dramatic sparkly element to the piece itself...




I put some old picture hooks into the driftwood and this is how the pendant connects to the necklace...I then connected it all together using jump rings...



And then the finished product looks like this once you have connected the pendant to the nylon via the crystal BB pellets!!!

And here's me modelling it!!

Hope you enjoyed seeing my process, if you check out the page link above on the button you can see loads of other great entries too...
Goodbye, untill next time...!!!