Recycle or Reuse to Create Your Beautiful Jewelry
When the office was in our houses, most men took off the tie and put on the golf or polo shirt. The ties went to the back of the closet, or the dry cleaner, or most likely, jumbled up in a ball. Even with the return to the offices, most young men balk at wearing a constricting item around the throat, especially during summer. Neckties may have been passed down from a family member. This is a great way to remember them and use their loved items.
This means, my fellow crafters, the best time to recycle those neckties with your collection of buttons, beads, and threads is now.
Creating Wearable Jewelry
Find a few unusual ties. Make sure you put them against your skin, especially around your neck area. You want to make sure they are not scratchy or coarse because you might wear them against your skin or clothing.
Get out your button collection. This might be your beads or polymer clay jewelry too. Sort them into different color schemes like blues or greens or winter and summer colors.
Match your thread collection with the ties’ background color. You almost want to make it look like they are floating on the tie. Or that there is some material back there, but it might be hard to see.
That is fine, you want to showcase the buttons and materials on the tie, not the tie itself.
Cut the necktie 30 inches on the fat side of the tie and make an origami fold in the center. This means that both sides are even and without the point like you see in the tie picture.
From there, you can add a snap at the top for the closure.
Then you want to lay the tie flat and start placing buttons on it. Realize the focal points will be at the bottom and wherever you place an unusual button.
Photograph the placement of the buttons before sewing. This way you can refer back to it.
Beautiful Example
As you can see with this necklace, a black tie with white dots, plus black thread and black, silver, gold, bronze, and white buttons made a beautiful necklace.
A fun activity that can be calming, enjoyable, and uses your collections.
I will be having some of my crafting collections at the Sacramento Center for the Textile Arts on Saturday, June 26, from 10 am to 3 pm.
It is a fun bazaar where buyers and sellers meet, feature materials and tools for artists, crafters, and creative-minded people.
This link takes you to the Art Elephant Sale page.