Macadamia Nut Shell Necklace

Posted 2013-04-25 by Jane Street ⇒ follow

We are lucky to have a macadamia tree in our garden which drops nuts in beautiful hard shells. This project uses the macadamia nut shells to make a pretty necklace. It would make a great Mothers Day or birthday present. The project needs help from an adult as the holes in the beads are made with a drill.

Time: 2 hours plus several days drying time
Age: Over 10's
Level: Hard

Materials

Macadamia nut shells (we used 13 in our final necklace but started off collecting around 20.

Acrylic paint

Varnish (we used clear gloss nail varnish)

Ribbon

Drill

Macadamia nut shells ready for washing and sorting

Method

Collect the macadamia nut shells and wash them well. Allow them to dry out thoroughly for a few days.

Sort out the shells and discard any which are cracked, mouldy, too big or too small.

Get an adult to drill a hole in the end of each nut.

Holes drilled

Choose colours for your beads. We started with blue, green, white and yellow paint and used these to mix different shades of blue and green in the cups of an egg box.

An egg carton is a good container to mix up lots of different shades of paint

Paint each bead. The egg box cups are useful as you can dip the shell in the paint and roll it around.

Dipping the macadamia nut shells in the paint

Allow the beads to dry

Beads drying.... add another coat if needed

Varnish the beads. We used clear gloss nail varnish and used a skewer to hold the bead without having to touch the outside.

Use clear gloss nail varnish if you dont have craft varnish

Line up your beads in size order then rearrange to have the largest bead in the middle, getting smaller towards the ends.

Arrange your beads smallest ones to the outside

Thread the beads onto a matching colour of ribbon

Tie the ends of the ribbon with a knot to stop the beads falling off the end.

Ready to wear

Your macadamia nut shell necklace is now ready to wear. If you're giving it as a present, why not make a pretty gift box to put it in?

Categories
#hard
#over_10s
#mothers_day
#christmas
#birthday
#necklace
#jewellery
#natural_materials
#seeds
#cheap

%mykidcraft

237893 - 2023-07-18 02:09:53

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