Zipper Beads and Jewelry

Spend a little time tearing zippers out of old clothing you no longer wear, then a little extra time turning those zippers into cool beads and jewelry. It's fun to make assorted zipper beads and use them to create earrings, necklaces and more. Or, don't turn the zippers into beads but still make cool jewelry pieces. It's all possible when you look at zippers in a whole new way. Instead of zippers being used with fabric, they can stand alone, and be beautiful while doing so.

One quick and easy necklace you can make is crafted from a single zipper. When you use a metal zipper, and paint the fabric area of the zipper with a metallic paint, you can create a necklace that looks like much more than an ordinary zipper. Paint the cloth areas with bronze, gold, silver, or another color of fabric paint, and allow to dry. If you want, you can paint the metal parts of the zipper as well.

Use silver or gold filament thread to create the necklace for the zipper pendant. Just thread the needle, stitch through one side of the zipper - near the top - then through the other side of the zipper, leaving a thread long enough to wrap around your neck. Or, twist several threads together, and attach them in a similar manner, to create a more substantial necklace.

Create a zipper bead by first removing the zipper pull. It's generally pretty easy to zip the pull off, but it can also be cut off. Then, separate the zipper teeth so that you have two separate pieces. Beginning with the end that did have the zipper pull, place a dab of glue on the end, then roll the zipper from one end to the other. As you do, create a cone shape for one design, or a round shape for a slightly different look. Cut off any fabric at the end and add glue - or a few stitches - to secure the very end of the zipper. Do the same with the other half of the zipper.

Adjoin the two zipper-half beads by using glue or stitches to put the cloth ends together. To cover the area where the two fabric pieces meet, and to give each bead a more decorative look, wrap a wire, cord, or yarn piece, right around the junction of the two. The finished bead should look like cloth in the middle, with zipper teeth sticking out each end.

Purchase long zippers to make fat beads; use short zippers to make smaller beads. Metallic zippers will create beads of one design but plastic zippers give you a much different look. Experiment making various zipper bead shapes and types. To string them, simply push a cord or thread through the center of each zipper bead, and tie the ends of the cord together.

Zipper beads - and jewelry - are very unusual, yet really cool. Go look through clothes you no longer wear to find zippers you can use to make new fashion wear. They might be costume jewelry pieces but they'll sure get noticed!