Making jewelry using unusual items is not a new thing and the last few years have seen a rise in Recycled and reused materials jewelry. Out of them Zipper or Zip is a highly favoured material. This simple fastener lends itself into many shapes thereby making accessories out of it a pleasure. Inspired by the works of Reborn jewelry and Amalia Versaci (both on etsy) I made a few zipper jewelry pieces in varying levels of difficulty.One is a ring – rosette ring to be specific.
Here’s How to make it: I just removed the clip and used one side of a jacket zip. I then gathered on the plain side and twisted the strip keeping the teeth at the open end to get a rosette. the plastic bit will be at the centreI stitched it through the layers and it was done. I then made a normal loop to fit my finger with a remaining piece of zipper and attached it to the back of the rosette. Now my ring (fully made of Zippers) is ready.
The next one is side focal bracelet, which is little more work than the ring
Here’s How to make it:
Materials :You’ll need a metal jacket zip, an extra puller, some beads and a clasp with some jump rings.
Procedure: Measure your wrist and cut the same amount from one side of the zip from the end. The puller will come of by now. you’ll need to insert it on the strap. Dab some clear glue and press the puller into the zip. Let it dry and hammer it slightly.Trim the other side to about half inch till the metal portion and singe it with fire so that it does not fray.Keep it aside.
Once the puller is dry (we will use this as an end piece to connect the clasp), stick or stitch the other side on to the main piece so that it will look as in the pic. I cut an extra piece and did 2 layers on top of the main one to get a 3 tier effect.I then added another puller to these two layers using the same method as above.Now with the remaining zip (again one side only) make a rosette (technique refer to the above – rosette ring). I added some random beads on top to just decorate it. Now stitch or stick (clear glue) the rosette to the zipper body at the side so that onepuller comes out through the rosette. Now comes the hardest part….waiting for all of it to dry completely- atleast a day 😉 Now for the clasp add a s clip or a hook to one of the pullers and some jump rings to the other (side) puller…Viola its done…!!
I am sorry if my instructions are a little confusing (didn’t think of making it into a tutorial when I made it ) but trust me, this piece is not difficult to do…just requires a little patience.
Now if you fell all this is too much of hard work…here is the simplest of them all – a straightforward zipper bracelet from CutoutandKeep or simple necklaces from Infarrantly Creative
I hope the zipper journey was fun…will explore it again whenever possible
Cheers
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