Glow in the Dark Witchblade Bracelet From Thermoplastic.

This is a glow in the dark bracelet I made using Thermoplastic which softens to the consistency of modeling clay when it is put in hot water.

Step 1: Supplies Needed

I used this product, called Polydoh which is a white plastic. To use it all that is needed is a container of boiling water. BUT to make this I used the Glow In The Dark version of this plastic.

Step 2: Preparing the Material.

Sorry but I didn't take a lot of pics during some of the steps in the building process, but a description is straight forwards.

First I determined the colors I'd need to make: The bracelet I wanted to copy was silver with a red center. So I put some water on to boil, then put a ceramic soup bowl on the table with a spoon next to it. When the water was boiling I poured some water into the bowl then put in some of the plastic and waited for it to go from white to clear. I then added in a few of the red coloring pellets into the plastic, used the spoon to bring it out and began to knead the color into the plastic.

As the plastic slowly cooled, it began to harden again, but there are several minutes of working time before it cools and hardens too much: And when that happens all that has to be done is put it back into the water to soften up again. When the water cools off replace it with more hot water. USE THE SPOON TO TAKE THE HOT PLASTIC OUT OF THE WATER AND LET COOL A FEW SECONDS BEFORE WORKING WITH THE PLASTIC.

I roughly shaped the red plastic into a blob then set it aside to cool. I did the same with more of the glow in the dark plastic and used silver coloring pellets, then kneaded the color into the plastic. I then rolled it out thin and let it cool and harden.

Step 3: Shaping the Bracelet.

I located and printed out a picture of the bracelet I wanted to do. In this case the "Witchblade" tv series bracelet, and I kept referring to it while I was making the bracelet.

First I made the red center. I put the red plastic into hot water then pulled it out and shaped it into a circle with a ridge around the bottom of it. Then I set it aside to cool.

I then began working with the silver plastic. First I made the band itself by rolling some of the plastic out on the table, then wrapped it around a handy glass jar and set it aside to cool and harden. Once it hardened I worked it off the jar and began the next step.

I next took a small piece of the plastic and put it into the water to heat up and soften... Then I took it out and used it to stick the red circle onto the band, and let it cool and harden. The plastic sticks very well to itself when it's hot and bonds solid when cooled down.

Next I began by dropping more of the silver plastic into hot water and began taking out pieces of the hot plastic and used them to make first, the ring around the red circle and used a toothpick to press notches into it. Other pieces of the plastic became the surface decorations of the bracelet. Since this plastic literally works like modeling clay when hot, this was easy to do.

Step 4: Making the Slot on the Bottom.

Making the slot was simple: I put hot water into the bowl and then set just the bottom of the band into it to soften. I then used a sharp knife to cut through it and separate the two sides of the band.

After it cooled, it hardened. And the bracelet was finished.

Step 5: Glowing in the Dark.

And here are the pics of the final bracelet. In normal light it looks ordinary but in the dark it glows. Not brightly like an LED but a little dimmer. The base plastic glows for a few minutes after exposure to light, making it an unusual piece of jewelry. This WILL soften in higher heat but it will only soften slightly outdoors under a hot sun.

This same method can be used to create other pieces of jewelry and when the plastic is hot it can be cast in most silicon molds.