Did you enjoy my past tutorial post on shrinkable plastic jewelry?  If you did, you'll probably like this one about Friendly Plastic.

Like shrinkable plastic or Shrinky Dink, Friendly Plastic has been around for years.What's significantly different is Friendly Plastic is colorful with lots of shimmery hues. The vibrant metallic colors offer tons of jewelry design possibilities.

It's also reusable so scraps can be recycled. Unlike shrinkable plastic, you can cut Friendly Plastic with either a craft or utility knife, scissors (Tim Holz scissors recommended) , punch holes or die cut it after fusing pieces together with heat.

As you can see by Lisa Pavelka's Autumn Cascades jewelry design tutorial above, the effect can be stunning.

If you watch this introductory video, you'll notice the instructor uses a griddle for melting the plastic. But other crafters also use heat guns.



What is Friendly Plastic? It is a non-toxic, tough, biodegradable plastic known properly as polycaprolactone. It has many uses in various modeling hobbies largely due to its ability to change to a putty like consistency at low temperature ( 60 degrees C) which makes it easy to manipulate. There are also biomedical applications. Friendly Plastic is FDA approved to be used in implantable devices for drug delivery, as suture material or as an adhesion barrier.

Want to learn more about using this material? You can see more jewelry design resources here. Also check out the E-cyclopedia of Friendly Plastic which covers, terms, techniques, tips, trick and tools.

Below are some of my favorite tutorials from Linda Peterson and Jana Ewy who design for AMACO. Check out their The Art of Friendly Plastic blog for more outstanding artistic inspirations and links to more videos.

Shown on the left are the Brightly Colored bangles, a design tutorial by  Jana Ewy.

This Blooming Cylinder necklace tutorial by Jana Ewy plays up the metallic colors of gold, silver and copper. I do like the cylinder earrings.

Making your own focal bead is a breeze! Just check out the Beautiful Marble Focal Bead Necklace tutorial by Linda Peterson.

This gorgeous Colorful Butterfly Necklace design  by Jana Ewy uses tear drop shaped Friendly Plastic pieces to go over the filigree vintage brass butterfly.

This one is a winner!  You can easily make Jana Ewy's swirly Christmas Tree Pendant and Earrings set and have fun at the same time! I have cross referenced this tutorial in my past post on Christmas Tree Earring tutorials.

I also like Jana's vintage brass Dragonfly pendant tutorial. Like the butterfly design above, the bright colors of Friendly Plastic certainly go well with the muted vintage brass.

This Japanese inspired kimono pendant necklace tutorial by Linda Peterson will surely please copper lovers!







 GIVEAWAY
Want to win this Friendly Plastic Assorted Metallic Prints? Then head on over to Favecrafts' giveaway which ends on July 23. You can enter daily or get extra entries by blogging and twittering about it.


______________________________
Original Post by THE BEADING GEM
Jewelry Making Tips - Jewelry Business Tips