Thursday, February 7, 2013

Valentine Tutorial Glass Style Heart Pendants

It's time for another tutorial!!!!
This time we're going all out with the hearts.
It's a picture heavy tutorial so I'll keep the words limited.

Happy Valentines!

I used three STAEDTLER fimo effect colours. Translucent #014, Rose quartz #206 (New), and Ruby quartz #286 (New). These little hearts would look great in any fimo colour. I especially love the translucent based colours for these guys.



I flattened each of the colours to a 1/4 cm thick sheet and free hand cut out some hearts. Mine range from 1.5 cm wide to 2.5 cm wide.



I cut two sides from a sandwich bag and placed the hearts inside one at a time. I pressed the edges smooth with my finger tips through the plastic.



I used a floral pin to make a hole in the top of each heart. 



I baked the hearts in a preheated 230 degree oven for twenty minutes and let them cool off.



STAEDTLER size for metal leaf was painted on with a liner brush in different patterns. Some swirly... some dotty.... some geometric. I let the size dry completely.



After the size was dry I stuck some STAEDTLER metal leaf onto the areas I sized. I used a rough stiff bristle brush to rub off any extra leaf and burnish it to a shine.



I glossed them up with a coat of STAEDTLER gloss varnish.



I did the backs too. Sooooo shiny!!!


My favorite pliers are three in ones. They have double round nose tips, a flat area and a cutter. I used them to twist three cm bits of twenty gauge wire into eyelets. Each heart had an eyelet twisted into the hole at the top.



I joined each heart to a hunk of chain ranging from one cm to six cm long using a jump ring.



I made quite a few varying lengths.



I joined three hearts... one long, one medium and one short.... a red, white and pink heart on each ring. I made six of these triple strand thingies.



I threaded a 10 cm piece of chain through the eye of each of these joining jump rings and evenly spaced the strands. I added a jump ring to each end of the connecting chain to hold it in place.



I made dangle beads by putting a head pin through a crystal bead and turning an eye at the top of each bead.



Attaching the dangle beads to the main chain will keep the triple strand hearts in place. I also stuck some crystal dangle beads randomly around the piece.



I checked to see if I liked the way it hung. I added a few more single strand hearts to the main chain.



Th ribbon I used is vintage sewing stuff. I cut two strands big enough to go half way around my neck and finished the ends with a crimp fastener.



I used some fabri-tac to stick some bows just over the crimps on each end of the ribbon.



Lobster claws were added to each end of the ribbon with jump rings and I clipped the lobster claws onto each end of the necklace chain.



I love these little hearts!!!

Hope you do too!