I have been so excited to share my first DIY feature on the blog modeled after a Tom Binns Necklace. Yes I love his jewelry, all of those beautiful handpainted rhinestones but I definitly do not like the hefty 2,000 dollar price tag. I mean we are not buying diamonds here, they should not be that expensive. I have seen alot of great tutorials for DIY Binns necklaces and decided to try one of my own. I went into the Corvus Noir archives and saw that I have lots of vintage rhinestone necklaces and picked one that would be perfect to use.
Inspiration
Materials Needed:
Rhinestone necklace- mine is vintage from the 1950′s but you can find a cheaper modern day version at Forever21 or Claires
Paint Pens- I bought two different packages one with neon colors and the other non neon all from Michaels
Nail Polish and Top Coat
This DIY is super easy.
1. Paint the center stone with paint pen. Make sure to shake the pen well while working and depress the tip of the pen onto some paper to get more paint out. Do this consistently while working on all of the stones.
2. The paint pen was a little hard to use on such a large stone so after painting a couple coats( I let them dry inbetween each coat) I decided to use a neon nailpolish and painted many coats on top of eachother. Probably like 6 or 7 so the stone does not look see through
3. I chose a blue shade to surround the center stone. Paint each stone and allow to dry before moving on to the next coat. I reccomend 3 or 4 coats to get a really rich color.
4. Paint the remainder stones with whichever color combonation you would like. I went color by color picking random stones so that I would not have a pattern. Remember to use at least 3 to four coats. I also left some stones unpainted so you could see the natural rhinestones which gives the necklace a little more light.
5. Once the paint has dried paint clear nail polish over each stone. The polish will make the center stone nice and shiny and will also seal in all of the colors. I made the mistake of not painting the stones on the chain and the paint started to rub off. So I will be repainting once more on only the chain and then putting the top coat on top.
warning: The top coat will change the colors of the paint a little bit. They become a bit richer and darker, less neon. I did not like that at first but it really is the only way to seal in that color.
Finished Necklace: I love all of the different colors mixed together. It is really bright, fun, and colorful. Craig said it reminded him of a candy necklace which sounds good to me!
Have fun with this project. I did not really keep track of time but it definitly took a few hours. Paint each stone carefully and try not to mix the paint from stone to stone.
I have another DIY tutorial coming up the end of the week inwhich I used only nailpolish. Stay tuned for that!
Lauren
