I have been grappling with a custom order for a month now. A mom-friend sent me 11 coins and wanted them made into a necklace. The first idea she had was a no go. She had found a pin on Pinterest and wanted me to come up with a bib style necklace. The original pin had the crafter using felt for the backdrop. The weight of the coins made it impossible for this to work. I experimented with some crafting type coins and felt. Yes, dear friends, for any type of wear ability -- this is NOT GOING TO WORK!!!
I was having issues with the design. The coins were too heavy just to stack on top of one another in a design or just to have the edges glued together. I needed something with bit of femininity but still use the coins in a pretty way. I kept envisioning those coin belt buckles of the 1970's-80's. Yeah, not really digging that either.
Then, boom! Filigree! (Mmmmm... my three past jewelry posts have been about filigree...) and a scary thing called E-6000 epoxy adhesive. I had never used E-6000, but had added it my arsenal of jewelry making supplies. I decided to incorporate the 6 pennies and the 3 quarter sized silver toned coins. All the larger coins had an image of Queen Elizabeth II (I think...) on them.
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This has been a fun project. E-6000 is an really user friendly epoxy. If you have ever used epoxy or resin, these products can have minds of their own. The best clean up to use with it is baby wipes. The hardest part of using E-6000 is you have work slowly and in layers. I did glue the coins to the filigree and to each other in one day. 12 - 24 hours after that, I glued the backing filigrees on. 12-24 hours after that, I glued one side together. The final day, I glued the other side together.
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With this project, I have learned and awesome new technique and fell in love with E-6000. My design options are endless. I am only limited by my own fear. Why I fear anything with creativity is beyond me.
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