Party Animal Hemp Necklaces!

Adorable animals in party hats, guaranteed to cheer you up even if you are sick as hell! I found these little gems at Michael’s in the clearance bin for 49 cents. Mine! After that I picked up some hemp string, picked out colors from my embroidery thread, and found the clear casting epoxy (also thanks to Michael's).

So the first thing I did was create three basic hemp necklaces. The project was more about learning to use the epoxy, so I kept it simple. Here’s the standard hemp knots:

1. Follow color coated string placement

2. Repeat alternating sides.

This is what you ended on and
takes the place of the green
in the other drawing.

I chose a color for each necklace that fit with the animal. Then after realizing the threads tangled ridiculously, and spending way too much time unknotting, I tied them up except for a couple inches of working string. The first necklace turned out a bit wonky, but after a while I realized to look for the large knot and take the string from that side first. This worked much better than relying on my shady memory.

Interestingly enough the hardest part of this process was finding the right size molds. I came across some plastic cases for tea lights that were just the right size. I will never use these again. It might have been my refusal to by the $11 dollar lube, but I'm a lady. Anyways I ended up prying out the beads with pliers and got a gnarly blister. I’m getting ahead of myself. The clear epoxy is super simple. Measure out equal amounts of both mixtures, pour, and don’t get it in your eyes. I let the beads dry for 24 hours and then start the extraction process mentioned above. I’m looking for rubber molds next time.

Awe

Rawr!

To finish up the beads I sanded down the rough edges around the top. I really didn’t have any buffing options, so I carefully used fine sand paper. I drilled a mostly straight hole through the top of the beads then used a needle to thread the bead. Then I ran the string through the hemp necklace to attach the bead. Altogether this project cost me about $20. The epoxy was a tad expensive, but I only used about a fourth of a bottle. Plus I have an extra cute T-Rex bead. 

Pretty classy work station!

This project was a decent learning experience. I'd say it was a solid first attempt with the epoxy. I'm thinking about expanding into medallions made from fabrics. Might be kind of cute. As long as I can find rubber molds.

-Aubs