I made the best gifts for my sisters this year: Their very own jewelry trees! The project was inspired by my Grandma Alloway’s tree. I wrote about it several years ago.
We knew my Aunt Sheryl would inherit Grandma’s jewelry tree, so I asked to inherit my Grandma Alloway and Grandma Osborne’s jewelry collections. The collections both included random pins and trinkets picked up over the years, as well as an incredible amount of costume jewelry. I had boxes and boxes to go through.
I was stumped for a long time on the project, because although I had my grandma’s instructions, changes in technology made the fairy lights aspect of the project very complicated. After thinking on how to solve for this problem for a couple of years, I finally decided to abandon the lights.
Once I decided this, the project took just a few days to complete. Because I was working on three trees, I spent 5 hours going through the jewelry, 4 hours prepping the jewelry, an hour preparing the frame and backing, an hour laying out each tree (3 hours total) and 45 minutes per tree attaching everything.
Here’s how to make one of your own.
Sort through your jewelry. It helps to organize everything into like items: Necklaces, brooches, pins, watches, bracelets and sentimental pieces.
Prep your frame. Remove the glass (or be smart and buy a frame without glass). Spray the back with glue and attach your preferred fabric. I used black velvet. You could save time by purchasing velvet board instead of making from scratch.
Next, do a rough layout of your items.
I free-formed a tree design, so it was far more artistic and loose in style than my grandma’s. You can cut out a template to trace if you prefer.
I found it very helpful to start with the large pieces. I found pieces that worked well as tree toppers, and elements that worked well for the tree base. Then I sprinkled in a few large icon pieces to anchor the overall design. Once I had that done, I filled in with small pieces. I had a lot of 4-H pins that we Alloway girls had earned over the years and used those for a significant part of the tree filler.
After I was happy with the layout (and I changed one sister’s tree design three times!), I took all of the pins off and started removing backings as much as possible. All I needed was a simple pair of wire cutters – I used my floral wire cutters and they did the job, along with a lot of hand muscle.
Then it was simply a matter of laying everything back in place, making final adjustments and starting to glue things down. I used hot glue on high heat setting to make sure the bond would hold. You could also use Gorilla glue or other strong-hold glue designed for fabric and metal that dries clear. Once again I started by gluing down the large pieces, then did all of the outside edges, then worked my way through the inside.
I love love love how they turned out! This is a relatively simple project to do. All you need is costume jewelry and special mementos, glue, wire cutters, a pretty frame and backing, a couple of days to get everything done.
