Today on the blog, I asked my lovely eldest daughter to guest post a recent project she did for school called wearable art. The task was to design a piece of clothing and matching accessory with materials that would have otherwise been thrown out. After scouring the house (and the bins!) she made a top made from an old towel, decorated with a broken bag, and then a necklace from broken pencils. She decided on a space theme (she’s inherited her father’s love of astronomy), and in fascination, I watched her look for materials that suited the theme (particularly for the colours black, blue and grey).
Isn’t it wonderful! Together we had so much fun doing the photo shoot of her product to include in the assignment. We put a bit of sparkle eyeshadow on her, to tie in the space theme, and quietly…I was a little freaked out how grown up she looked! It was one of those moments, where my mind stopped for a moment. My baby girl, my first child, is growing up! And what a beautiful girl she is, inside and out. This is her guest post.
How to Make a Pencil Necklace
Guest post by Adelaide (my daughter)
I think the necklace looks awesome and it’s something I will wear in real life. It doesn’t look like I made my items out of garbage, but I have!
Materials
Twine (I used Divine Twine)
Broken pencils (7)
Drill
Drill screw (size very small)
Step 1
I sharpened the broken pencils and then placed them in a triangle shape. Then Mum helped me trim the edges with a sharp knife so they were even at the ends.
Step 2
Using the drill, I made holes in the ends of the pencils to thread them on the string. This was fun! I did this on a board, and I used sunglasses for eye protection.
Step 3
Using a needle, I threaded string through the hole that I drilled in the pencils.
Step 4
I tried on the necklace to see how it looked. I decided to go for a short length style. It’s easy to adjust the length of the necklace, depending on where you tie the bow at the back so it can be worn with many different styles of shirts.
A necklace pencil is a fun project for older children (or adults), or a gift for teachers at Christmastime.
Recycling
In the pictures the silver trailer represents recycling unwanted things and the rocks represent the moon and space (my design theme). Maybe in the future, we will do even more recycling, maybe even unusual things!
I love that smile of yours, my girl, and in your face, I can see how proud you feel wearing the finished products. I’m so proud of you. Mum x
7 Comments
Renee Veldman
October 3, 2012 at 5:41 amThis is just absolutely wonderful to see your daughter’s talent and perspective shine through, and she is so gorgeous, just like her mum!
Susan Stephenson
October 3, 2012 at 6:12 amI really like the way the instructions were written so clearly and concisely. There was enough detail so we could understand and go straight out and make our own recycled pencil necklace. The images really set off the post beautifully!
Nicole Grant
October 3, 2012 at 7:26 amI love this! And I would also love to see a tutorial for the shirt. Well done Adelaide.
Robyn
October 3, 2012 at 5:49 pmThat’s awesome! The necklace looks so funky, I know Bec would love it. Definitely freaky to see our girls growing up so quickly!
shelly
October 6, 2012 at 9:09 amGreat how to article. I’m going to have to send it to my daughter who is making Flintstone “Wilma” necklace for her halloween custome. Just needs to swap out rocks for pencils.
Erin
October 6, 2012 at 9:56 pmWow, that first photo of your daughter is stunning. I had to do a double take as I wasn’t quite certain as she looks so grown up!
Well done Adelaide, this was a great post – you should be really proud of the necklace and shirt. They look great 🙂
Teo
April 19, 2017 at 11:55 pmThat looks wonderful, congratulations for the howto article as well 🙂