JeNNspeak: Craft Review: Family Fun Magazine "Most Rugged Natural Jewelry"

Raise your hand if you get Family Fun, saw this idea in the June/July 2011 magazine, and knew I'd try it? And if your kids are like mine, they LOVE to collect rocks and shells and sticks, and just about everything else. And as if what they find on the ground is not enough, they also like to buy those little bags of polished, colorful rocks at the Zoo Gift Shop. Occasionally, I do let them buy a bag. We had enough collected at one point, that we made stepping stones and used the colorful rocks to decorate around their footprint on the stones.

When I saw the "Most Rugged Natural Jewelry" idea in
Family Fun, I immediately thought of the newest bag of rocks
we brought home from Ruby Falls.

The idea is to place a small stone at the center of a 15-inch-long piece of colored wire. They, and I, used 22-gauge. But I shortened my piece of wire to 12 inches. Wrap the wire around the rock a few times to secure it. Twist together the ends (don't over twist or you'll break the wire), then wrap the twist around a pencil to form a loop. Use needle-nose pliers to close the loop, then cut off any excess wire. Hang the pendant from a length of leather cord.

A close-up to see the twisting and looping and such.

First I will say, I did this by myself. Both of my girls saw what I was doing and didn't ask to help. But, working with the round, polished stones was difficult, and I know my girls would have become frustrated easily. They are, after all, 4 and 7. I had a hard time keeping the wire in place and keeping the rock from slipping out, and I had to start over on more than one occasion.

I used black wire and black 20lb hemp cord to make this necklace.
I also happened to have a magnetic clasp that I added for closure.

For the blue stone, I used blue wire with a brown leather cord.
The cord is just knotted on the end, so I needed to make sure
it was big enough to fit over their heads.

After working with the polished stones, I raided my daughter's collection of rocks. Some of them are rocks I'm sure she's found outside and others I'm not sure where they came from, but some do look more like they came from a craft store.

This black rock is more flat than the Ruby Falls rocks, and it was so
much easier to work with. I wrapped it with black wire and put it on one of
my braided leather chains.

This brown rock that came home from a playground is also flatter
and was also easier to work with. I wrapped it with black wire and put it on
a necklace we'd gotten from the craft store for a different project.

So all in all, this idea turned out some pretty neat and unique jewelry that will be fun to wear. At least I hope they are wearable... that the wire doesn't slip allowing the rock to fall out. I do recommend, however, that you find rocks that are on the flat side. And perhaps with the flatter rocks, my 7-year-old would be able to join in and make one, too.