One of the reasons people delight in making their own holiday gifts is the personal touch.
Martinez artist Joy Broom’s “wearable art” necklaces take the idea of making meaningful gifts in an interesting direction. Her necklaces are made of strings of sturdy paper rounds that are decorated on each side with the maker’s own drawings or cutouts from old photos, mementos or books with sentimental value.
Broom’s necklaces are an extension of the art she’s created over the last 30 years. She loves to deconstruct and rearrange old family photos, personal artifacts, historical curiosities and scientific objects into extravagant mixed-media paintings, drawings and dioramas. Broom’s aim is to give these objects new life while honoring the past.
A sewing machine is the only special equipment required to make the necklaces, the retired Diablo Valley College instructor says.
“People can use papers from old photos or scrapbooks,” says Broom, speaking from her art-filled home studio. “I like to use pages from an antique dictionary, but people can use any damned thing they want.”
Wearable art
Materials
¾ to 1-inch circle template, like the lid from a bottle or small jar
White gel pens, fine point
Black card stock or sturdy pages from a black photo album (not construction paper)
Old photos, book or dictionary pages, scrapbooking papers, etc.
Glue stick
Matte Mod Podge sealer
Scissors
Black marker
Masking or painters tape
Black thread
Directions
Using the circle template and a white gel pen, trace 26 or more rounds on the black card stock or photo album paper.
Use the white gel pen to fill in the rounds with your own drawings. Or decorate them with circular cut-outs from photos, book pages or other paper mementos, using a glue stick to attach the cut-outs.
Brush a thick coat of Matte Mod Podge over the decorated rounds to provide a protective sealant.
After the Mod Podge dries, carefully cut out the rounds. Pair two rounds and glue them together, with the decorated sides visible. Touch up the outer edges with a black marker. Repeat with the rest of the rounds.
Tear off a length of masking tape 28 inches or longer. Rub the sticky side on your pants to reduce its stickiness. The tape will be used to hold the rounds in place as you sew them together
Lay the tape flat, with the sticky-side up. Keep the tape taut as you place the rounds — evenly and touching edge to edge — across the top half of the masking tape. Fold up the bottom side of the masking tape about ¼ inch to secure the bottom of the rounds for sewing.
Using black thread and a sewing machine, slowly sew a line up the center of the rounds from top to bottom. Finish by stitching the top and bottom rounds together along that center line to form a necklace.
Peel off the masking tape carefully and slowly, so as to not tear off the decoration. Finish the necklace by brushing on another coat of Mod Podge along the stitching on each side of the rounds.
— Joy Broom
