Introduction: Aluminium Pendant

About: I'm a working at home mom, with two kids and one cat ;). I love create cuse and useful things, specially with recycled materials: jewerly, cloth dolls, patchwork, etc.

To make a personalized aluminium pendant like this one, you will need:
1 aluminium can
goggles
cutter
scissors
sanding paper for metal 320
tweezers for jewerly 
punch
a piece of wood
alcohol and cloth

Well, I don't speak a very good english, but Googles helps me a lot, so follow me by this images...


Step 1: Cutting the Aluminium Can

Cut the bottom of the can all around, with the cutter knife and to separate the last centimeter, use the scissors..
not neccesary to mark this line... but, I made it to give you the idea, of where is the right place to cut..
Cut, piece by piece all this around with scissors...please, do not try to cut at one all at the same time, because you can hurt yourself. This section of the can is harder than the rest of the can.
Also, don't forget to use eye glasses to protect your eyes...this is very important!!!
To cut this small pieces use scissors, if the edges are irregular, use the sissors or a sand paper to get a smooth borders.

Step 2: Folding Edges

The clamps you will need for this project, are both of this... the tweezers for jewerly don't have "teeth" inside.
To fold the edges, you have to do it in 3 steps:
1. With the clamp thin, slightly bend the edges toward the center of the pendant.
2. With the wider tweezer, take the edge in the vertical position and double to the center of the pendant.
Repeat the movement all around, to complete the entire circumference.
3. To hide the sharp edges, press all around with the same wide tweezer, until passing the fingers over the surface feels smooth.

Step 3: To Place the Holding Ring

To make the hole where we will insert the ring to hold the pendant, we need a punch and a piece of table and with a metal sand paper, soften the sharp edges of the hole.

Step 4: Cleaning the Surface

The last step is clean all the surface with a cloth and alcohol. This is necessary to remove the rest of dust, grease and the ink from the bottom.
Now, you can start working on your pendant... paint it, or apply decoupage, dry flowers, or what ever inspire you!
I have used acryclic enamel and varnish.
Have fun recycling!