Tutorial: Coloured pencil brooch

After seeing this video, I was really keen to try making some coloured pencil jewellery of my own. Last week I showed you a green and blue coloured pencil brooch, but I also made this pink one. Here's how I did it:

1. Select some coloured pencils in colours that you like.

2. Cut pieces off the pencils about 1cm thick (I used a bandsaw for this, and cut about 20 pieces for a brooch 3cm across).

3. Find or cut a thin piece of wood of the shape you want the brooch to be.
4. Using superglue (cyanoacrylate glue), attach the pencil pieces to the wooden base. Make sure to get glue under each piece, and in between each piece.

5. Allow the glue to dry, the longer the better to ensure it’s really hard.
6. Sand, sand, sand the surface. If you want the edges to be rounded, sand them to the shape you want.
7. If there are any tiny gaps between the pieces, add some glue to these, but try not to get too much on the top surface as it will darken the wood.
8. Sand again, working from coarse to fine sandpaper. Buff with a soft cloth to remove any dust.
9. Add a few coats of a high gloss varnish.

10. Glue a brooch pin to the back.

If I was to do it again, I’d make a little more effort to make sure all the pieces were the same thickness – it looked like a miniature Giant’s Causeway when I glued them in place, which did look quite cool, but it took quite a bit of sanding to flatten them!