Shrink Plastic Crochet Brooch - Mixed Media Jewelry

Shrink plastic is a versatile product and ideal for making jewelry. One of the benefits of shrink plastic is that it is easy to cut and punch before shrinking using normal scissors and hole punches. This opens up a wide range of creative possibilities. After shrink plastic has been shrunk holes can only be achieved through drilling.

Make interesting mixed media items, such as this brooch, by adding crocheted edges to your shrink plastic. This is easy to do by punching holes into the shrink plastic and using these to stitch into. I've used this technique to make the brooch above, however this can be adapted in numerous ways to make other items of jewelry, greeting card embellishments or to add into other mixed media projects.

Materials Required

• Shrink plastic
• Rubber stamps, inks, pencils, paints and other basic supplies as required
• Hole punch (I used a standard stationery hole punch)
• Crochet cotton and crochet hook
• Brooch / pin finding, glue

Note: Brands of shrink plastic shrink at different rates, therefore it is a good idea to make a test piece to check the finished size of the shrink plastic element and the holes if you want a specific finished size or to use a specific size of crochet hook.

How to Make a Shrink Plastic and Crochet Brooch

1. Stamp the shrink plastic and color the design as required
2. Use a hole punch to punch holes around the edge of the shrink plastic
3. Heat the shrink plastic following the manufacturers instructions
4. When the plastic is cool, crochet into the holes and complete a crochet edging as required
5. Add a brooch pin to the back of the shrink plastic if required

Crochet Tips

• You can add as much or as little crochet as you like. I made a row of single crochet stitches (UK double crochet) into the holes in the shrink plastic to make a foundation. I then made a row of double stitches (UK triple crochet) into this. The addition of more rows, interesting edging patterns and/or beads would create a stunning effect.
• If you want to use a thicker hook than will comfortably fit through the holes, use blanket stitch to create a foundation and crochet into this.
• Don't make the holes too close to the edge otherwise the shrink plastic may snap. I made the holes fairly far in to the shrink plastic element. This is because I wanted to make a feature of the stitches. While it is best to have the holes evenly spaced around the edge, they could be placed at different depths to create an interesting design feature.

Crochet Resources

• Single Crochet - illustrated step by step tutorial
• Double Crochet - illustrated step by step tutorial
• Crochet with Beads

More information about jewelry making can be found at Jewelry Making and for more information about crochet, including free patterns and tutorials see Crochet.

Stamp: 'Princess' from the Stampsmith