Make Your Own Buttons!

Add a new creative twist to your jewellery with our lovely button making kits now available in the shop. 

You start with two pieces of metal and end up with a beautiful button that is covered in the fabric of your choice.  The buttons are available in a choice of sizes, 15mm and 22mm:

and two versions:  flat back and wire back. 

The flat back buttons are ideal for gluing onto rings, earrings, hair pins and pendant findings, and the wire back buttons are perfect for stringing and for threading onto hairbands. 

These buttons come with a making tool for assembling your buttons (each size of button needs a different tool, but different backs can be used with the same tool as long as the size of button is the same).

To make your pretty buttons just pick some fabric – thin fabric is best – and cut a circle that’s about 1-1.5cm wider than your button.
 

Pop the fabric onto the white part of the tool, pattern-side facing down, and sit your button over this, ensuring that any pattern is centered in the position you want it to be (this can sometimes be a bit tricky!).  Then, with the red bit of the tool, press down into the white bit so that the fabric and button top are snug inside the white part of the tool.  

Bunch the fabric back into the button 

place the back of the button on top, ensuring it is perfectly centered

 and with the red bit of the tool again press down hard so that it fits right inside the button. 

Finally, pop the button out of the tool, and there you go, a perfect button that you have made yourself!

If you have chosen to use flat back buttons, you can simply glue these into place onto rings and hairpins or simply add a magnet, pin or tiny brooch back.  

To use them with pendant trays, you may have to apply your glue to the edge of the button rather than to the metal back.  This is because there is a 1-2mm edge where the button sides are higher than the back, so sometimes you may have to add a riser so that the back is flush with the edge so for certain applications this would be useful.  You can use a rubber pad, washer, or a foam sticker (as used in card-making) – just ensure your glue is a strong one.

I have used a small riser on the hairclips above, however for items such as rings and hairpins, a riser should not be necessary.

The 15mm flat backs fit beautifully into our 15mm bezel trays, and we are investigating offering 22mm trays.

The wire back buttons have a loop at the back so that these are essentially your traditional buttons and these can certainly be used as such!  Or you can also add them to hairbands – all you need to do is thread the elastic (doubled up) into the loop, and then knot it over itself.  Simple!  And if you use the metal fastening on the elastic at the back of the button you will have a secure tie and the metal won’t show.  See pictures below for a guide:

                                                                                                                

The best fabrics to use are thinner ones, cottons and linens are ideal.  Look at Japanese fabrics for beautiful designs that are little enough to use on a button, or the tiny patterns available in dollshouse shops, or use just a little detail from a bigger pattern fabric. 

If you want to be totally original, consider printing your own fabric – I usually use heat-transfer paper (for printing on t-shirts) for my own designs.  

Most of the above buttons use vintage images from my collection which I have printed onto heat transfer paper, and bonded to thin fabric.  Or if you wanted to do this on a slightly bigger scale, consider using a fabric-printing company who will print short-runs of fabric for you to your design.

The use of fabric lends a wonderful handcrafted feel to your jewellery, whether classy or cutesy, it’s very pretty indeed!

Loving the stickers

I do love these epoxy stickers - as if you hadn't noticed.  I'm putting them on everything!  I think that for those who struggle with the glass and the glaze and the bubbling and the waiting for the thing to dry, these provide a superb alternative.  

Admittedly the resin is a plastic so a piece made using an epoxy sticker will feel different to one made with glass - it's very light in comparison whereas glass feels very solid, it's domed also but not quite as high as the glass, and it has a definite, um, plasticky feel in contrast to the cool smooth glass. All those things are to be expected.  What is unexpected is the clarity of these little stickers!  they are superb over any images.  

I made some pendants with the stickers, to show you the differences:

Glass (l), sticker (r)

 The two glass pendants (l), two sticker pendants (r)

Slightly different effect of the two materials - glass (l), sticker (r)

This close-up shows the sticker (r) is also domed, but not quite as much as the glass (l).

I think for all their qualities, these stickers are particularly suited to projects where you need a lighter end result that is tough and unbreakable, pieces such as charm bracelets, keyrings, magnets and all other things that can suffer from knocks and where being dropped could be disastrous!   And they are so easy to use, they would make ideal first projects, easy enough for even quite small children to make their own (with grown-up assistance of course!).

Find the stickers in the shop:  http://jasminstudiocrafts.bigcartel.com/category/epoxy-stickers  Currently available in 25mm round and square, plain or with a light dusting of glitter.  More sizes coming soon!  Or try the amazing quality stainless steel dogtags.  

How NOT To Make a Glass Tile Pendant Part 3 - Bubbles

How annoying is this?  You make a beautiful pendant, it is flawless, yet a few days later you notice that bubbles have set under the glass...  grrr.  This was not even an intentional mistake for blogging purposes! This was a piece I made for myself because I love the combination of the ornate vintage bronze tray and the red paper.

The papers were well sealed, and I had coated the tray with ModPodge to avoid the blue rinse.  So what went wrong?  Here is what I think - I set the paper to the tray, and then the glass on top, and generally, you need to glue the paper to the glass first.  I have a sneaky suspicion that because the tray is slightly ridged on the inside, tiny air bubbles were trapped under the paper, which surfaced through the layer of fresh DG under the glass but couldn't then escape because the edges of the DG had already dried.  Just my theory!

I get far better results when I glue the glass tile to the paper first, let this dry, and then attach it to a tray.  Bubbles are definitely less, but one potential problem with doing it in this order is re-soaking the paper from the back, but that can be lessened by using a different type of glue in the tray, such as E6000.  Again I recommend experimenting to work out which method is best for you!

I'm going to keep this piece.  The camera blows up all the little detail but I still like this pendant and it is not that obvious at first glance, so it will be my little flawed piece and I will still wear it!  And ssssshhh, nobody need ever know about the bubbles.  Wanna see a super close up?

 
(Amazing that this would have printed out as an A2 size ...I looove my new camera!!)

A Basic Shopping List

Before the tutorials and product reviews begin I just wanted to give you a little list of things to gather in preparation for making your own personalised jewellery.  I think we will start with glass tile pendants as the materials are easy to come by.  But first of all, do check in your cupboards, as you may already have some of these bits!  

You will need:

• clear glass tiles or cabochons
• glue-on bails or a pendant tray
• the images that you want to use
• Mod Podge or decoupage glue or PVA (craft) glue - you will use this to seal your images
• Diamond Glaze - this is a clear resin-like glue that shows a clear image through the glass
• toothpicks/lolly sticks
• a cheap small brush
• strong glue like E6000 or superglue (if using the bails)
• a chain/necklace for the pendant

What if you don't have all of those materials?  well obviously my shop will be happy to help!  Thinking laterally can usually help - maybe you don't have a glass cabochon, but do you have any old mosaic pieces?  so you have no bail - do you have a small metal disc into which you can punch a hole for a jump ring?

A word about materials - experimenting is key!  different papers and different inks react with the sealants and glues in different ways, so be prepared to try this out a few times before you get the process right for your chosen materials.  As such, you can try different products and brands until you find something that you are happy using.  What I intend to do here is to give you a "recipe" that works for the most part - however some inks can be unpredictable, so do please gather a bit of extra material for your experiments. I will talk more about different materials and products and how they work, and I intend to tell you all about my failed attempts too (and there have been many!) so you can avoid my mistakes.

In fact, now you have all your materials together, then now might be a good time to do some of the preparation work.

First of all, cut out a few of the images to the size of the glass you intend to use, and coat them with your choice of sealant.  I like to use ModPodge, but you can try different products.  If you have some kids PVA glue, then mix some with a bit of water and it makes a pretty good sealant, even if it does not give the most professional finish.

Coat your image with the sealant about three times per side letting it dry well in between coats.  Once the final coat is applied, leave it alone to dry completely.  After 24 hours.check it for any ink runs, see if it's a good even finish and make sure there are no gaps in the covering.  And get ready to use the rest of your materials!