Clay & Wood Bracelet Jewelry Boxes

Learn how to marble with clay

Ever since these planters, I’ve been on a mission to repurpose the bangle. I’m talking bangle bracelets…not Bangles “Walk Like an Egyptian.” Although, I guess when it comes down to it, both bangles scream 1980’s…and let’s be clear, the 80’s were awesome. If you hate the 80’s, you hate awesome and I can have nothing do to with you. So, pull up your side pony with a hot pink scrunchie, throw on all nine pairs of your stacked slouch socks and button up your acid wash jeans because today’s project is all bangles, questionable fashion not included. You’ll have to provide that yourself.

For this bangle project, I’m enlisting the ever popular marbled clay technique. The interweb loves marbled clay. But I couldn’t just marble some clay and call it done. No maam. That’s not how I gets down. I paired it up with a few unexpected elements to create a really pretty jewelry box that is perfect for your nightstand. And if you don’t want a container for your jewelry, perhaps your scrunchies need a place to live. Whatever floats your boat.

(P.S. I have another project on Design*Sponge today that uses wooden bracelets and another unexpected craft supply. Go take a look, then come back and let me know what you think!)

What you’ll need:

Sculpey Clay in various colors
Gold Metallic Sharpie
Acrylic roller for rolling out the clay
A wooden bracelet. Check out THIS Etsy shop for a whole mess of wooden bracelet options
Hot glue gun
Small wooden bead. I used this geometric shaped one.
ALSO!! You’ll need concentric circle cookie cutters (not shown)

Roll out the clay into long snake shapes then join them together
Twist the clay

After twisting, fold the clay..
Then twist a bit more

Use the roller to flatten the clay to about 1/4″ thick. You’ll see the marbled pattern come through

Okay – now pay attention!

Cut a circle from the marbled clay that closely matches the outer diameter of the bangle bracelet you are using
Next – cut one circle from the marbled clay that closely matches the inner diameter of the bracelet you are using

Finally cut one last circle from white clay that is the same diameter as the circle cut in Step 7 above
You should have three circles now! One circle that matches the outer diameter of the bracelet and two that match the inner diameter of the bracelet. Bake these off according to the package instructions (usually about 15 – 20 minutes at 200 degrees for every 1/4″ thickness)

Use the metallic marker to draw a gold edge around the largest clay circle
Insert the white clay circle into the bottom of the bracelet and use a glue gun around the edge to secure it in place. This is the bottom of your container.

Now, use the hot glue gun to adhere the smaller marbled circle to the bottom of the larger marbled circle. This will create your lid.
Glue the wooden bead to the top of the lid.

I decided to paint the wooden bracelets, but you could easily leave them natural which would be plenty pretty. For the gold bracelet, I used the same supplies and techniques from this post. It’s easy and leaves the most gorgeous, perfectly gold finish. Try it. You will be rubbing everything down with this stuff.