I will start out by admitting that I am not the first person to think of this. In fact, a quick search of Etsy will reveal quite a
number of sellers. I decided to learn how to do this because, let's face it, I have a lot of nail polish. I need something else to do with it, otherwise I would never have a reason to buy more polish. And shiny jewelry I could match to my nail polish? I think everyone is a winner there.
So I searched. Did
some googling. Spent a lot of time staring at Etsy. I hoped to find an easy and relatively cheap way of doing this. I will say, it is pretty easy. But cheap, not so much. I just wanted to make a few pieces for myself, but most of the supplies I needed weren't easily found near me. Which is crazy because I have an AC Moore, JoAnns, Michaels and Hobby Lobby all within about 10 minutes (I know, I am lucky). Most of the tutorials or examples I found were made with cabochons in fabulous settings, which I would have to order online (I really hate paying shipping). Then I found some that were just the cabochons with glue on bails. I found the bails at Michaels and they were $1 each. Not per pack, per bail. In my stumbling around the craft stores trying to find something I could pretend was a cabochon, I wandered into the aisle with the mosaic tiles. Nothing there, but next to it I found the glass floral beads. Domed glass with a flat back, Bingo! I was also experimenting at home with making shawl pins so I had some jewelry wire. After making a couple of small spirals for the ends of the pins I realized that I could fashion my own bail pretty easily out of wire. And so it began.
So here are the supplies I use. A clear nail polish top coat (I use NYC because it is cheap), your nail polish of choice (I just used one color to demo), Jewelry wire (20 gauge), E-6000 (because it will glue anything to anything), jewelry tools, your glass beads (I talk about the sizing later).
So if you have your bag of the floral beads, there will be some in there that are not suitable for making jewelry. Some of the beads have a irridescent quality to them. Those are bad, you want ones that are clear. Make sure the back of the bead is flat and doesn't have any cracks or big wrinkles. Make sure the glass is clear and free of bubbles. Once you've done that, paint the back of your "cabochon" with a smooth layer of the top coat. Make sure there aren't any bubbles. You are doing this to provide a smooth surface to paint onto and to give something for the polish to stick to.
Polish is Kleancolor in Bite Me
Once the top coat has dried, paint with your polish. A lot of the ones I make I will do a layer of glitter or crackle. You want to lay those down first. You are essentially painting these backwards. So always sparkle then nail polish. And you want to let these try in between coats. Don't paint it on too thick or you will end up with bubbles. You can do as many layers of glitter and polish as you want. Just go slow, paint thin and let try. The same way you would paint your nails. If you are finding that your polish is not very opaque, you can put on a coat of white or black to fix it. Also you would be amazed at how many glitters look absolutely amazing over black.
China Glaze Prismatics and
Wet N Wild Bejeweled. Kind of meh by themselves, OMG over black (
CG and I can't find WnW).
Once you have all the nail polish you want on there, do another coat of clear top coat. Make sure you completely cover the color.
To make your bail. I cut off a piece of wire that is about an inch and a half long (I don't measure). I use the round nose pliers to start making a little coil by pinching the end and then twisting.
I use my favorite pliers to make the coil bigger by winding it around itself.
Once I'm about 2/3rds of the way up the wire, I make the other end by wrapping it around the wide bottom of the round nose pliers.
I then go back to the coil side and keep going until it is closer to the top.
Once the nail polish is completely dry (I usually try to let it sit for about 24 hours after I have put on the last coat) I use E-6000 to glue. Follow the manufacturers' instructions. I do a little dab on the bail and a little bit on the stone. These then have to sit for about 24 hours. And then you are done. I realized as I was taking these pictures that the open circle at the top of the bail actually needs to be turned 90 degrees so that it runs perpendicular to the stone so that when you run a ribbon or chain through it the stone sits flat. ::makes a mental note to change the ones I just did when I get home::
Polish is China Glaze in Marry a Millionaire
I've been able to find three size of the floral beads at my craft stores. The smallest is smaller than a dime and I use them for the stud earrings. The middle is a good bead size. I actually have a few ideas to use them more like beads than pendants. And the largest ones are bigger than a quarter and make good pendants by themselves.
You could also glue them to different findings. I have yet to find any ring settings around here and might have to resort to buying them online. But I found these stud settings are the best of the earrings. They are a bit heavy and the wide flat back helps them sit better in your ear. I think I am going to try putting some bails on the smaller sizes and see if they make ok dangling earrings. I also have a few blank hair barrettes I want to try gluing them to. But just experiment and have fun. If you have the nicer cabochons and settings near you (lucky people with a bead or jewelry shop) I would recommend playing with those. You would use a very similar setup. Paint the back of the cabochon and glue into the setting.
I hope you enjoy and let me know if you have any questions
