Tutorial: Hunger Games District 12 Coal Necklace (or key chain)

I had an idea to make a District 12 Tribute tribute necklace for a long time. I wanted to use real coal briquets and thought about how I would make it work for months. After roaming the isles of craft stores for the 10th time it finally clicked. Mind you I am by no means a jewelry maker and even though my husband says it’s “definitely novelty” I (and my friend Heidi who I made one for as well) think it’s AWESOME! Duh it’s novelty, it’s a Hunger Games necklace for goodness sakes.

Anyways I love the giant lump of coal. It goes together very quickly, is so fun to wear, and it really goes with a ton of outfits. On top of that it’s a pretty inexpensive project to put together (you might even have most of it on hand). My sister was unsure about wearing a coal chunk on her neck so she requested a key chain and she wanted her geekiness to be a little more obvious so I added a little 12 tab using the tutorial I shared on Friday to hers.

What You Need

Coal Briquets
Polyurethane
Wire to wrap (I used 24 gauge gold color)

What To Do

Paint a few thin layers of polyurethane on the briquets of coal. I found that a few thin layers worked much better and dried more clear than thicker layers. (The ones pictured in the first picture are a bit to glopped on, the ones I liked best were done with thinner layers). Let dry completely.
Take wire leaving a tail and wrap a few times around briquet.
Create a loop or two, wrap some wire around the loop, wrap a few times more around the briquet (if you want to add a tag or other charm add it now when you make the loop).
Cut wire and wrap both ends around the loop.
Hand it on a necklace, key chain or whatever you please.

ANd there you have it a Hunger Games District 12 coal necklace. I hope you like it. I know I just might be a complete dork but I think it’s kind of cool and pretty not just purely geeky but maybe I’m just that far gone of a book geek haha. And if you want other ideas for necklaces (possibly even more Hunger Games Necklaces) check out my wood board charm tutorial.

And don’t forget next week starts my Hunger Games Blog party. I’ll have a linky up on March 5th for everyone to share their Hunger Games posts (creative, reflective, whatever as long as it’s Hunger games related) and then the following 3 weeks until the movie comes out I’ll have loads of guest posts with some awesome bloggers. I hope you’ll come by and party with us all.