Garbage Jewelry By Ava Blu and Obinna

Garbage Jewelry

By Ava Blu and Obinna

Ella wearing our Cheese-It earrings

For the Maker Faire decided to make garbage jewelry. We wanted to help the environment, by making reusable products that people would otherwise throw away. We wanted to turn something, that most considered garbage into something pretty and fashionable. Our inspiration, for this project, came from our love for the earth and any innocent animals who are getting hurt, by what us humans are making. We want to slow down the garbage cycle, and make it into reusable fashion that you can where numerous times!

You can see how easily the plastic can rip

In the process of making the jewelry, we had the challenge of only had one needle so we had to have endless patience to make tiny holes in the piece of garbage we were using. We had to make the hole not too big and not too small, it was very tedious and very annoying. In the end, one of us just has to do it but after maker fair was done, Ava Blu found this hole puncher that punches out little holes, which would have been more convenient. We also learned 

that the plastic snack bags can be super flimsy and easy to rip, so gluing thin cardboard from saltine boxes makes the jewelry sturdier.

Mango Earrings

Having to go through the trash really made us realize how much labor and resources it takes to clean, dry, make, and assemble the jewelry.

Going thru this process we discovered that we really enjoyed making jewelry and we’d actually like to sell this jewelry and make a little business out of it. We feel that we wouldn’t want to injure or kill any innocent animals and further hurt the earth (also making money that we could put into supporting organizations and ourselves).

Estimated Cost of this Project: $20.96

If you want to try this yourself you can watch this awesome tutorial and get this jewelry kits and hardware to get you started.

#save the animals #save the earth #bling #fast fashion #reuseable fashion #Garbage earing art

Close up of Ava Blu making earrings

The garbage we collected

Kit:https://www.amazon.com/Earring-Supplies-LAMOK-Beginners-Crafters/dp/B07MKJWYRT/ref=asc_df_B07MKJWYRT/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=284857561347&hvpos=1o2&hvnetw=g&hvrand=15715555995318697069&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9032062&hvtargid=pla-647267694878&psc=1

Hardware:https://www.amazon.com/WOWOSS-Jewelry-Beading-Cutters-Supplies/dp/B07P9PVKK7/ref=asc_df_B07P9PVKK7/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=343161325095&hvpos=1o3&hvnetw=g&hvrand=8425956113136291790&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9032062&hvtargid=pla-740929159675&psc=1&tag=&ref=radgrid=69167795015&h vpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=343161325095&hvpos=1o3 &hvnetw=g&hvrand=8425956113136291790 &hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9032062&hvtargid=pla-740929159675

Tutorial:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DP2bQbPlCQQ

Pop Tab Jewelry, Nella S.

Pop Tab Jewelry, Nella S. 6B

For the 2019 Maker Faire I decided to use recycled pop tabs to make jewelry. I really like working with metal and making jewelry and I recently found out that only 9% of the materials we recycle don’t actually get recycled! It’s only thrown into the landfill like regular trash. I decided to choose one recyclable material I noticed we used a lot. At first, I wanted to make jewelry out of recycled paper. But I couldn’t manipulate the paper they way I wanted to. So later I chose pop tabs and started to work with them to turn them into jewelry. Lots of people drink sodas and recycle them or throw them away. But, they can be turned into beautiful pieces of jewelry you can wear comfortably. So from there I started developing the best way to manipulate the pop tabs.

I went through many ideas and designs starting with paper quilling (the rolling and gluing of paper to make designs) than using wire to connect the pop tabs, but I finally decided on using ribbon and threading it through the pop tabs. I also used wire cutters to cut through the pop tabs and connect them but that method caused the pop tabs to become pokey so I only used it for earrings. One challenge I had to overcome was how to make the pop tab jewelry comfortable to wear. As I mentioned before directly linking the pop tabs using wire cutters caused it to become scratchy and almost painful to wear. I had to come up with another solution fast. And so I decided to use the ribbon and it made them much more stylish and comfortable to wear! I loved the look of the colorful ribbon and it seemed like everybody else did too!

To make the ribbon pop tab jewelry take a pop tab and thread the ribbon through the holes and over the middle bar. Than loop more pop tabs on to the same ribbon and continue this process until you have reached your desired length. To connect the ends just tie them together around your wrist, ankle, or neck. To make the earrings I cut through the two pop ends of the pop tabs and linked them together into fun shapes! This project was so much fun and I really recommend it for a boring rainy day weekend or any other time you need a fun craft.



I used these Pinterest pages for inspiration:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/27936460169724105/

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/27936460169698865/

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/27936460169698837/

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/27936460166017059/

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/27936460165619051/