Using Creative Arts to Make your Own Jewelry from Fabric

KatjaBlum likes to find creative solutions for ugly or broken things around the house. As an artist, she started with yarn, fabric and papier mache (rarely together), branching out into collage and other paper arts about ten years ago. On the other hand while jewelry is a perfect way to take a piece of your art with you in your everyday life, Mixed media and jewelry is a great combination.

With mixed media jewelry there are endless possibilities of projects as Katja has highlighted on one of them below. This is what you need:

• 3 pieces of woven or braided rope to fit around your wrist
• Needle and thread
• Duct tape
• Thin craft wire, yarn or thread to wrap around the bangle
• Assorted fabrics, fibers and beads
• Mod Podge, Fray-Stop

Steps to follow:

• Measure the inner circumference of a bangle you like and cut the lengths of rope to size.
• Don’t pull the measuring tape too tight.
• Cut the rope pieces to size, lay them out together and tape them with duct tape to form a closed ring.
• Cut long strips of fabric or use unspun, dyed spinning fiber to wrap each ring, beginning with the two outside ones,
• Dab some Mod Podge or Fray-Stop on the fabric
• Start wrapping in the center of the duct tape at the bottom
• Decorate your statement piece to your heart’s content. Wrap it with thread, yarn, cord or thin craft wire.

The Parting shot of this art is that thinking about the functional aspects and size of jewelry gives you an interesting framework for your creative ideas.