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1. Dried, Pressed Leaves There are several ways to utilise leaves in your jewelry projects. You can use them as decoupage materials, you can set them in resin, you can press their texture into polymer metal clay or with the right skills you can even electroplate them with metals to preserve their amazing detail forever. You’ll need to use your imagination well to make the best use of leaves in your jewelry projects – they’re wonderful choices, but they do always need to be treated in advance to make them long lasting and suitable for use in these ways. 2. Drilled Shells Shells have been used as beads since time immemorial. Simply by drilling them through with a single hole you can make necklaces, bracelets, earrings and much much more that evoke all the beauty and wonder of the ocean perpetually to any wearer. There are ways of adapting shells to make them wonderful additions to all manner of projects, and they’re one of the most popular natural beading materials. Consider decorating them for even more versatility! 3. Nuts, Nutshells and Acorn Cups Acorn cups make great earring additions, many nuts are lovely when strung and nutshells are wonderful bases for all manner of decoration. Try drilling them if you can’t string them naturally, and always remember to varnish them once they’re in place to ensure their longevity. These are wonderful choices for combining with other, less natural, jewelry-making techniques for a sort of a ‘fusion’ look. 4. Stone Beads One of the oldest forms of bead we are aware of, stone beads are present even in nature – many stones end up with a hole worn straight through them by the elements, and these can be strung. If those stone beads aren’t quite what you’re looking for, you can also drill a hole into a stone without one. Stone beads are brilliant for making simple, natural, plain jewelry adored by young and old alike. Like shells, they can be decorated in all manner of wonderful ways – including by painting them with scenes that can in fact be very detailed, and are limited only by the scope of the artist’s skill and imagination. Stone beads make wonderful canvases. 5. Nearly Anything Else There are countless ways to make moulds for things out of objects you’ve found, and all you need to do is pick your favourite – rubber, silicone, resin, polymer clay, whatever works best for what you’re trying to achieve. No matter what the nature of your natural find, if you make a mould of it you can then recast it in all manner of different materials. This is particularly useful for things that you’d love to incorporate but that aren’t really suitable for use in this way – such as fruit, for example, or twigs and bark that are liable to crack, split or splinter. For more information on stone beads visit PandaHall.com today!
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