03/12/2012 - Starbucks Earrings

I usually try to bring my own mug to get my coffee, but there are times I just need my caffeine fix without a cup handy. I have been collecting these "splash sticks" (I think that is the fancy name Starbucks has come up with for these) got quite a while now. The moral of the story is that you should bring your own cup if you are going to buy coffee.
 
Reclaimed Material: coffee splash sticks, heart bead stoppers
Other/New Material: earring hooks, jewelry wire
Tools: jewelry pliers, looping pliers, clippers, drill

How I did it: I clipped off the stick part leaving about 1/8" to drill a hole to hang the bead under the Starbucks mermaid lady. Next I drilled holes using a tiny bit on the remaining stick sections. I also drilled a hole on the top of each lady. Next, I made 4 loops to connect the pieces of the earrings together. I connected the earring hook to the green mermaid lady using a loop, then used another loop to connect the heart beats at the bottom and repeated with the other earring.

What I would do differently: I originally wanted to use a colored bead, but decided to use these random heart things. As far as the heart bead stoppers, I am counting them as reclaimed/upcycled because they were holding some faux pearls on a string when I bought them. But I am still riding the fence on calling it upcycled. I need to come up with something that uses the whole stick, or maybe just the stick part.

02/12/2012 - Packing Peanut/Coffee Bag Earrings

Sometimes you have to make lemonade. I thought for sure melting packing peanuts would mold them together to make a large piece. My original plan was to melt the peanuts together and make a box. They just shrink up into tiny pieces and don't stick to each other...they do, however, get an iridescent look to them when they are melted. I decided to try to make some kind of small jewelry with the pieces, but the pieces were to brittle to use on their own, hence the addition of plastic/foil coffee bag.

Reclaimed Material: packing peanuts, coffee bag, bicycle brake wire 
Other/New Material: earring findings
Tools: iron and board, parchment paper, pliers, glue, straight pin

How I did it: As I stated above, I melted the packing peanuts. I did as with the other plastic melting projects -- between parchment paper with a hot iron. I glued the melted peanuts with the shiny side up onto a coffee bag, also with the shiny side out. Once they dried I cut out squarish pieces from the coffee bag then poked a hole in each piece with the pin near the top to string the wire through. I cut four pieces of the wire (about 4" long each) and looped two through the loop on each earring finding. There were four pieces of wire hanging down so I threaded packing peanut/coffee bag pieces on each strand of wire. I staggered the placement of the squares then wrapped the ends and trimmed the excess wire.
 
What I would do differently: I have no clue what else I would do with these melted packing peanut thingies again. As far as jewelry making goes, I just need to keep practicing on my wire work.