Make An Impression

Create Jane Kharade’s luxurious velvet cuff with matching earrings and gift box, embellished with silver clay

Jane Kharade, MJ Designer

"I’ve used antique shell buttons, real garnet stones and sterling silver embellishments for this project. As a budget-busting alternative, try pretty plastic buttons and silver coloured beads”

Make this gorgeous opulent cuff, with layered velvet ribbon in scrumptious pink tones, and decorate with semi-precious stones. The handmade precious metal clay embellishments and silver beads make this bracelet very special indeed! With earrings to co-ordinate and a sweet little gift box they will make a stunning present - if you can bear to part with them.

Cuff

1. Apply Badger Balm to a rolling pin to prevent sticking and flatten out silver clay to 1.5mm thick on a Teflon mat. Add more balm to a small rubber stamp, earring or similar, then press five flower motifs into the clay.
2. Cut out one disc with a 13mm cutter and four 10mm circles, then make a hole in the centre of each with a needle. Once dry, fire them on a soldering block with a hand-held blow torch. Polish them to a high shine with a nail buffer, and put to one side.
3. Dye cream cotton velvet a deep pink and cut out a 5cm x 19cm rectangle. Fold the edges over by 5mm, adjust the length to fit your wrist and machine stitch. Cut a length of pale pink velvet ribbon, a few centimetres longer than the velvet either end. Fold the ends over then pin and machine stitch them together down the centre of the ribbon.
4. Sew a small shell button to one end of the cuff. Take a 4cm length of elastic and tie it into a loop with a secure knot at the other side of the bracelet. Turn the cuff over and sew the loop into place with several secure stitches in matching thread.
5. Mark out your chosen positions for the clay embellishments, plus four more buttons along the central ribbon with a fadeout pen. Repeat to place nine 2mm silver cubes and four garnet stones above the ribbon, and five fancy silver beads, four more garnets and four silver cubes below.
6. Use matching thread and a beading needle to stitch the buttons and clay discs in place, adding a clear seed bead to the centre of each silver embellishment. Sew each one on securely and tie with a knot. Cut a rectangle of dark pink felt and glue it to the back to hide your working.

Box

1. Download the template and cut out a box from pink card. Assemble then cut a length of dark pink velvet fabric and a length of pale pink velvet ribbon. Stick double-sided tape on the reverse of both and trim to fit the box. Stick the dark ribbon centrally down the box, position the pale pink ribbon on top and press down firmly.
2. Adhere doublesided tape onto a length of white 5mm ribbon, and attach down the sides of the dark pink velvet. Make two 10mm silver clay discs in the same way as before. With strong PVA adhesive, secure both embellishments and three shell buttons down the length of the pale pink ribbon and leave to dry overnight.

Earrings

1. Attach a 3.5mm jump ring to an earwire, thread a 5mm jump ring onto this and attach a small shell button. Add a 5mm jump ring to the other button hole and another 3.5mm jump ring. Cut three different lengths of trace chain; 1.5cm, 3cm and 5.5cm, then hang them from the smaller jump ring, with the small and medium strands either side of the longest one.
2. From the shortest chain, hang a shell button with a 5mm jump ring. On the medium length, attach a garnet bead halfway down and a 2mm silver cube at the end. Add another garnet halfway down the longest chain as before.
3. Apply Bader Balm to a rolling pin to prevent sticking and flatten out silver clay to 1.5mm thick on a Teflon mat. Add more balm to a small rubber stamp, earring or similar, then press two flower motifs into the clay.
4. Cut out two discs with a 10mm cutter and make a hole in the centre of each with a needle. Once dry, fire them on a soldering block with a hand-held blow torch. Polish them to a high shine with a nail buffer. Pass one onto nylon thread and tie to the end of the longest chain to create a floating effect. Repeat to make a pair.