Creating Jewlery From Beach Finds And Other Found Objects

One of the nature crafts I most love to do is to create jewelry out of my beach and river combing finds. You will be surprised at how many cute things can be found and made into pendants and charms.

I like to use old fashioned wire wrapping techniques as this gives the piece a rustic and natural feel, but things can be mounted in a host of other materials and ways. I will be giving some tutorials to show how to mount sea glass and other found objects later on in this blog.

Today I will focus on wire wrapping; some of the things I like to use for wire wrap pendants are..

old pottery - the more patterned and colorful the better, make sure it has no rough edges..




Sea and river glass - again make sure this has no rough edges. If you want you can give the sea glass a coat of clear nail varnish to keep it looking wet.

Fossils - fossil shells are my favorite types to use

Shells - Shells are delicate, but can be easily wire wrapped with a .6mm wire

Minerals and interesting stones - look for polished cabochon shaped stones on beaches and in rivers, or stones with interesting shapes and patterns. You can give the stone a coat of clear nail varnish to keep it looking wet.

Crystals - Crystals are made for wire wrapping, find these in mountainous places, and of course on beaches, do your research and there are real beauties to be found.

You can be rustic or very sophisticated with wire wrapping,the wire seems to find it's own way around the dents in each stone or object. Sometimes it can take a few hours for me to find the right wire placement, and other times it can take literally minutes.

Some Of My Rustic Style Wire Wraps.. (and a bad coffee ring)
These are the most basic wire wraps that I do, just a simple caging of wire and small gemstone beads or chips to accent.

I like to use copper on the rustic designs as well as silver plated copper.

Some More Intricate Designs
These ones I have added some features, like wire curls and scrolls, and also some gemstone chips and beads to accent.

The first pic shows a fossil shell which I found and wire wrapped, It is the first in a series of shell fossil pendants that I have been working on, and my personal favorite.

Amethyst is one of my favorite stones, and a pleasure to work with...I don't find amethyst often (not down south anyway) but I have been lucky in the past in Devon. (I bought this particular point to wrap.)

Sea Glass is amazing stuff, and it makes beautiful jewellery, I like to mix and match my sea glass with gemstone beads and chips, and sometimes, like on the pendant that I made below, I like to use a few pieces of glass on the same pendant.

I hope I've inspired you to create some of you your own jewelry from beach combing finds, it really is very easy and very satisfying.