Recently I have gotten into the art of making miniature sushi necklace pendants. It is fun and easy, a great project for teenagers! You can of course make your own variations but I will walk you through step by step how to make this piece.

For this project you will need:

• 1 Small leather disk appx. 1×1 inch in size
• 1 toothpick
• 1 metal loop
• 1 tube clear drying craft glue
• 6 short, round beads
• assortment of tempura paints
• several fine tipped paint brushes
• 1 bottle cle ar nail polish
• hair dryer

Before I begin my

directions, I would strongly recommend that anytime I tell you to paint something, that you first mix that color with a bit of the clear glue. The color shows up much better, it doesn’t run where you don’t want it and if you do goof-up, a quick scrape with a pin or extra toothpick will get rid of it. The only part I do not recommend mixing the paint with glue is for the black base layer in step 1.

Also, I recommend blow drying your piece for about 30 seconds after you complete each step. This way your colors stand on top of each other and do not blend.

1. Paint leather disk black, blow dry for about 2 minutes
2. Paint a few thin, gold lines to decorate your disk
3. Paint a few red flowers randomly to decorate
4. Somewhere on your disk, glue down six of your beads so as to make 2 rows of three with the holes facing up. (if you did not find black beads in a good size, you can buy the right size and paint them black before moving on to this step.).
5. Fill the bead holes w ith white paint. Blow dry and ad a tiny dollop of light green to the top of each one. (for those of you unfamiliar with eating sushi, this is supposed to be wasabi and makes your sushi look more realistic)
6. Cut your toothpick in half and trim until both pieces are just under a half an inch
7. Glue halves together in a criss-cross fashion and paint the non pointy ends with black and red stripes
8. When your makeshift chopsticks are dry enough not to fall apart, glue them down to your disk, with one tip resting atop the sushi beads. Be sure to fill in all cracks between chopsticks and disk with clear glue or they will not stay on.
9. Blow-dry entire piece for about 2 minutes
10. Coat everything with a thick coat of clear polish to give the piece a glossy finish. Almost as if it were made from ceramic.
11. Be careful as you stab a hole through the leather and slide your metal loop into it. Let piece sit over night so that all the pieces can really set. Find a thin chain to slide it onto and use your trendy new necklace to accentuate a favorite dress or top. For other cute sushi jewelry ideas, see my other creations below! 

All images were made and taken by author.