Shrinky dink report
How fitting that the results of preliminary adventures with shrinky dinks coincides with the demise of my camera! Never fear though: I managed to borrow a camera so that you could share in the magic that is shrinky dinks.
Prior to this year, I had never heard of shrinky dinks. A coworker had the cutest earrings and when I commented on them, she informed me that they were handcrafted. Another coworker, overhearing our conversation, told me that she strongly suspected that shrinky dinks were involved in the making of the main “bead” of the earrings. After hearing that I just had to know all I could know about shrinky dinks.
What I found out is the following:
- shrinky dinks (SDs) is the brand name for shrink plastic
- when put in an oven (not the microwave!) this plastic sheet which resembles a sheet of acetate used on overhead projectors more than anything) will shrink up and thicken
- the stuff has been around since the early 1970s and seems to be making a comeback
When I did a search for jewelry made with shrink plastic, the first thing that caught my eye was Planet June’s tutorial, which I shared earlier. A search on etsy revealed the beautiful rings of Dillon Designs
I decided to pick up some ink made for unusual surfaces such as plastic, and some of this plastic and see if I could fashion some cute earrings.
Here’s what I started with:
…and here is the final result.
Side by side:
(the final product is about an inch in diameter)
I can already tell that a challenge will be determining (through trial and error, I suspect) the sizes that I’ll need to make the starting piece of plastic in order to get it to shrink to the size(s) that I need. Simple earrings can be fashioned by simply attaching this to a jump ring and then to earring hooks and I’ll be set!
The instructions that came with the SDs said that permanent markers work well so I picked up some colourful fine point Sharpies while I was out. I can’t wait to see what else I come up with!
May 20th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
I saw a genius idea for determining before and after sizing of your plastic. She made a perfect size gauge taking a strip of the plastic and drawing a ruler at normal scale and then baking it. After shrinking she could decide how large she wanted her piece to be, check that against the shrunken ruler, and know how large to make the original piece. I wish I remembered her name, though!
Good luck and great article!
May 20th, 2008 at 10:34 pm
Thanks for the brilliant idea, Starrie! I shall give it a try