Faux Opal Necklace

I love opals.  They are my favorite stone.  I was playing around with some of my stuff in the studio and came up with a fun way to make faux opals.  You will need the following supplies:

Substrate of some kind (I used a wooden placemat piece)
white, turquoise and blue paints (or any other color you want to make your opal)
Black Paint
chunky glitter (I used the cheap kind you buy by the bag at christmas for fake snow)
crystal laquer
Silver foil tape (or copper foil tape is fine too)
1 scrap of wire about 1 inch long
E600 or other strong glue

Start off by painting the back of your substrate black, let dry and brush on a coat of crystal laquer to coat it.

Next make a small puddle of the 3 paints and dab them on the front of your piece in random blobs.

While piece is drying, get glitter ready.  I take several flakes and cut them smaller with detail scissors, and keep a few large.  This glitter tends to be in several layers, so I recommend seperating them with and xacto knife. 

When the paint is dry, put a layer of crystal laquer on the top and gently place glitter by stabbing it with an xacto and placing it on top.  Press glitter into the laquer, it is ok if the glitter pokes up a bit, it adds to the depth and dimension of the piece later.  sprinkle smaller glitter over larger placed pieces and then cover again with laquer.  Let laquer dry, check surface for smoothness, and if still bumpy, keep adding layers of laquer until it is smooth.  Let dry overnight.

When piece is dry, surround edge with foil tape.  Drill a hole in top and insert a loop, glue in with E6000.  Add jump ring and secure to chain or beaded necklace however you want. 

I get a lot of compliments on the pieces I made.  I love the color and sparkle, and am making a bunch in different colors.

Experiment with things you have lying around the house...  here are some different ones I did with other colors, and using the natural color of the wood.