Make your own jewellery out of hotmelt glue

What’s that, you say? Jewellery? Out of hotmelt glue?

Well, yes, actually. It’s easier than you think, and, as well as being fun to make, you’ll be left with something that’s completely unique to you. It also makes a great present with a personal touch for a friend or loved one. So why not give it a try?

Getting started

To make the matching bracelet and earrings, you’ll need:

• Coloured glue sticks
• Glue gun
• Tec mat
• Jewellery wire
• Spacer links & spacer ball
• Earring hooks
• Pliers
• Beading awl repair tool
• Round nose pliers

The first thing that you’ll need to do is create the flat discs of glue that we’ll be stringing together to make the bracelet and earrings. You can also cut your glue sticks using pliers to mix colours and create a marbled effect.

To do this, just insert half of one glue stick into your glue gun, followed by half of a different coloured glue stick – we’ve used gold and orange.

Then simply dispense your glue into button shapes on the tec mat until you have enough in a variety of colours to make the jewellery.

Once your glue is dry, take your beading awl repair tool and carefully pierce the centre of each glue button.

To make the bracelet, thread a spacer ball onto your coil of jewellery wire, followed by your glue buttons. We’ve threaded these with the flat edges together. After you’ve covered a good length of wire, check this against the circumference of your wrist to make sure your bracelet will fit. When you’re happy, cut the wire and apply another ball spacer. You can then attach a clasp, or just join the wire permanently to finish your bracelet.

For the earrings, thread a spacer ball and some of your glue buttons onto a shorter length of wire, followed again by another spacer ball. Cut the wire and twist the ends together using the pliers, before attaching to the earring hook with some spacer links (the more links you use, the more the pendant part of your earrings will swing from side to side).

Repeat this again for the second earring, and that’s it – you have your very own hand-made jewellery set.