Colts Keychain

Last week I made an Indianapolis Colts keychain out of hemp as a gift for my boyfriend’s birthday. I thought this would be a really great present for him because he loves the Colts and his birthday was on the same day as the Super Bowl this year. It was a perfect gift for the occasion. I started by making the beads that I eventually put on the key chain. I made the beads out of the clay I bought. The clay can be baked in the oven which causes it to harden. I rolled up several little balls of blue and white clay. Then, I took a tooth pick and poked it through the middle of the little clay ball to make a hole for the hemp to go through. I had to make a bead with a big enough hole so that the thicker hemp could thread through. I simply used the tooth pick to hollow out a big enough hole on the bead and then attempted to thread hemp through the hole to make sure it would fit. I made eight blue beads and eight white beads, but ended up not using all of them. To make the Colts pendant bead I put on the key chain, I used the blue clay to construct most of the bead and then used the white clay to construct the Colts emblem onto the bead. First, I rolled up a bigger ball of blue clay and then constructed the Colts emblem with the white clay. I then stuck the emblem onto the bead and added small blue dots along the Colts horseshoe. Again, I used a toothpick to hollow out an opening for the hemp to thread through. The bead did morph a little from its original shape as I created the hole, but it still looked pretty good so the beads were ready to bake. I baked the beads at 300°F for ten minutes, took them out of the oven, and let them cool for a few minutes. Finally, I made the keychain using the flat hemp pattern and alternated blue and white beads on the outside of the keychain. At one end of the keychain I put the Cults pendant and at the other I beaded on a round, metal key ring. My boyfriend really liked his gift. He said that now he would never lose his keys!

I have been making very functional projects that differ from the traditional hemp jewelry. This was not my original intention when I picked hemp jewelry for my By Hand project, but I thought it would be really cool to make things other than your typical hemp necklace or bracelet. We have discussed in class that a lot of the time a crafts form will reveal a lot about its function. This is true about my crafts as well. The dog color I made has a clasp on it for easy removal and a metal ring for a dog tag and leash to attach to. The key chain is very long so it can serve its purpose as well and keep keys from being lost easily. According to Atkinson in his article “Do-It-Yourself: Democracy and Design;” I would fit into the Pro-active DIY category. I fit into this category because I have manipulated the design of my projects to differ from original hemp jewelry in order to make functional products that I could use or give away to people as gifts. For my next projects I will make more traditional hemp pieces like bracelets and necklaces, but I will also be giving them away as gifts to some of my family members.