Introduction: Wire Wrapped Pendants Painted With Nail Polish

About: Living in Kamloops BC, with hubby, animal and my best friends ;)
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 ;)