A Beachstone Inspired Christmas Pebble Pendant
Transforming nature into works of art.
By Maria Chatzi | Posted 12/1/12 | Updated 12/4/20
We continue our Christmas countdown through an artistic adventure with beach stone-inspired artist Maria Chatzi who finds creative ways to transform the smooth stones found on the island shores of Greece into delightful works of art.
Season's greetings! This creative project shows you how to make a painted Christmas pebble pendant — an easy jewelry craft for teens and adults. Enjoy the process of painting holly leaves with berries on a stone and fashioning it into a one-of-a-kind Christmas pendant to treasure and share.
You'll need a flat and smooth beach pebble, a small piece of satin ribbon, a round and thick leather cord, paint, and varnish for this activity.
Level of difficulty: Easy | Age: Teens & Adults
Craft Materials Needed:
- a flat and smooth beach pebble about 1.5 inches long and 0.78-0.80 inches wide,
color: dark green, dark grey, or black. Drill a hole on the upper part, near the edge. - small piece of satin ribbon, length: 1.5 inches and width: 0.78 inches, color: red
- painting brush for art, bristle size: 0
- acrylic paint, color: silver, red, metallic green (or green glitter glue)
- protective varnish
- round, thick black leather cord with an attached clasp
Project Instructions:
1. Soak your pebble in warm water with dish-washing soap. Rinse thoroughly and dry it with a towel.
2. After you’ve cleaned your pebble well, paint a silver holly leaf on its front side. You needn’t have a great talent in painting for this project — just draw the outline of the leaf and fill it in with the silver paint. Wait till the paint has dried (see fig 1).
3. For the next step, take your metallic green color and paint a smaller green holly leaf onto the silver one — make sure you leave a wide silver line all around the green leaf. Wait till it’s completely dry (see fig 2).
4. To continue, make three dots at the bottom of the silver leaf, using your red paint — joining the three red dots mentally, should form a triangle. Again, wait for the paint to dry completely (see fig 2 again).
5. Apply protective varnish evenly to the whole surface of your Christmas pendant. Wait at least for a whole day till the varnish has hardened.
6. Finally, tie your pendant with the red satin ribbon onto your round leather cord (see fig 3) and your Christmas pendant is ready for you to wear or offer as a Christmas gift to a special friend or family member (see fig 4).
Project Tip:
I’ve used green glitter glue instead of metallic green paint, but it is much more difficult to apply glitter glue evenly than paint. If you have no previous experience in using glitter glue for painting and jewelry making, I would advise you to use metallic green paint so your project won’t be ruined.
©2012 Maria Chatzi. All rights reserved.
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