Handmade Rainbow Necklace

Add a bit of rainbow to your St. Patrick’s Day attire or wear this necklace every day!

Materials

• Air dry clay
• Wooden beads
• Paint (we used acrylic colours and gloss if you want a shiny finish)
• Thin dowel/ BBQ skewer with the end cut off/ toothpick
• Child-safe clasp
• Cord
• Paint brushes
• Scissors
• Knife (we just used an old one that we have reserved for crafts- garage sales are good for these items!)
• Cooling rack (Sorry- it seemed to have migrated from the photo!)

We always find these items helpful too:

• Smock
• Craft tray

Directions

• Don your smock.  Roll out your clay.  A simple way to make beads is to create a snake.  Go with whatever shapes you like, so long as they are a bit thick on the sides when you make the hole through the centre.  You could do spheres, cubes or our kids made rectangular-ish shapes by making a tube snake and then slightly compressing the sides.

• Trim your ends and then plan out the size of your beads.  If you make them similar in size then they tend to dry at the same rate.  An easy way to divide your clay is by halving it.  Once you have your beads, make a hole through the centre.  We used a BBQ skewer with the sharp end trimmed off so that it would create a slightly bigger hole for a preschooler brother to lace the beads.

• Lay your beads on a flat surface or cooling rack (if you want to speed up the process for greater air flow) to dry.  This may be overnight or depending on the humidity where you live and the thickness of your beads, several days.  We like to go with the several days as then there is no moisture under the paint layer.

• Paint your beads.  An easy process that we have used in the past is to put beads onto skewers stuck in floral foam (see photo below).  I have seen a similar process, on a skewer across a shoe box with a notch cut out for the skewers, but the kids wanted to paint them without skewers this time.  Just be sure to wash your hands after!  If you want a shiny finish add a bit of acrylic gloss to the paint or go with just the paint for a matte finish.  As these products, including the clay are not labelled non-toxic, this is a project for bigger kids who will not chew on the beads.  Allow your beads to dry overnight.

OR

• Thread your beads onto your cord.  We added a few wood ones in there too- use what you have!

• We attached a child-safe clasp on the end (usually these will pop open when there is tension or may be magnetized to react similarly) and put them with our St. Patrick’s Day outfit!

Purpose

• Recognizing symbols commonly associated with various celebrations.

Safety Notes

• We suggest that you wear a smock and use a craft tray to protect your clothing and surfaces.
• Use scissors with care and adult supervision.
• Cord, yarn etc. can be a strangulation hazard, therefore be sure to use with direct supervision and for its intended purpose.
• Beads can be a choking hazard, therefore be sure to keep them out of the reach of children ages 0-3 years of age or those that tend to put things into their mouths.