Wire Wrapped Pendants Painted With Nail Polish

Wire wrapped pendants, painted with nail polish. How easy is that?

It's as easy as choosing your wire, forming it, painting it and allowing to dry ;)

#1: Pick your tools ~ I've picked 4 types of wire, 2 circular objects [for forming your wire], various nail polish [all shades of blue, with one black, one clear and a glitter], some scrap card, various jewelry pliers [I like them because they are small and easy to manipulate], toothpicks [not actually shown] and a camera [I popped in my spare, in case my phone died ~ next round will be the camera and not the phone, lol].

#2: Pliers I used ~ flat nose, snippers and round nose.

#3: Wire I had: 20G Brass, 26G silver floral, 19G steel and an unknown gauged craft wire [too soft imho].

#4: Set out your nail polish, after choosing what color or colors you would like.

#5: The Toothpick container was too large for what I wanted [but I needed the picks anyways]. I used the glue stick to shape some wire.

#6: Use your scrap card to try out you nail colors. Look at them in all angles, and see which one looks the best. Also consider the quality of the polish ~ I first used a blue that literally took 4 hour for one coat to dry. I restarted my whole project and used Sally Hansen Insta Dry in Blazing Blue. It dried quickly and wasn't tacky.

#7: Set out your supplies, and remind your nosey Golden Retriever that he's NOT helping you paint!

#8: Sip your [virgin] pina colada as you bend, shape and paint ~ it will keep you hydrated and a little hyper with all that sugar :P

#9: My first attempt was using the 19G steel wire ~ I cut 10" [you will NOT need that much, I just eyeballed and measured after].

#10: Using your circular [or whatever] shape, wrap the wire around a couple of times, then trim the excess.

#11: View the craptastic form!

#12: Try again with another wire, see how that goes.

#13: Play with the shape until you are satisfied with it.

#14: Use a toothpick to hold the shape...

#15: And paint it!

#16: Using the toothpick [or picks, I used two], prop the shape up and allow the polish to dry.

#17: This is why you SHAPE your form FIRST! I learned the hard way, the orange floppy wire was shaped first, then painted.

#18: If you paint first THEN try to add more wire, you end up with gunky polish. This photo also shows the first attempt [19G steel wire, painted with crap nail polish, then adding the 26G silver floral wire ~ all around poor idea].

#19: So scraping the original wire forms, I started again from the start. I used a simple silver key ring, and the silver floral wire. I wrapped the wire several times to tightly form each point of the star [I used flat nose pliers here, to pull the wire taught]. I also formed a loop at the top, so that I can use it as a pendant. Once the star was formed, I maneuvered the smaller wire so that it was balanced. Then I used the Sally Hansen polish to paint the top side [using the same toothpick method above]. SH dired super quick, so I was able to do 2 coats on each side, allowing to dry in between. I added 2 coats of an iridescent glitter [I used Billie brand, from the dollar store, in Elated], on each side, allowed to dry then coated with a clear polish. I forgot about it for about 4 hours, in which time it completely dried.

#20: Now you have a perfect pentacle! I made this one for a friend, who decided they didn't want it. So it's mine now ;)

So there you go! You don't have to make a pentacle, you can make any shape or form you desire. The point is to utilize the materials you have on hand. I have 80+ bottles of polish, and I don't often color my nails, so why not use it in my crafting ;)

Comments

[digitalgraffiti]

Floral wire isn't actually safe to use on jewellery. It contains carcinogens, and should be handled as little as possible, and definitely shouldn't be worn.