I've always loved jewelry that is made with natural and easily found materials (such as wood and shells), but I had never actually made some of my own. When I was tidying up some scrap pieces of wood in the workshop, I saw a small piece of wood that was the perfect size for a pendant. So I grabbed it up and got to work! (anything to avoid cleaning. :P )

Step 1: Materials

Materials:
Small piece of wood

Sandpaper

Drill

Woodburning Set

Pencil

The piece of wood that I grabbed was already cut down the the right size. If you have a larger piece of wood that you want to cut down you will have to add a saw to the materials list. :)

When you have your pendant size piece of wood and other materials you are ready to go to the next step.

Step 2: Sanding

Sand your pendant until all surfaces are smooth, starting with a coarse grit and slowly changing to finer grit paper. I sanded the corners of my pendant so that it would have a smooth shape instead of being just a rectangle.

Step 3: Drill

Drill a hole into your pendant. This hole needs to be large enough for the cord or jump ring to fit through it. Make a small pencil mark where you would like to make your hole and then line the drill up with your mark.

Step 4: Sketch

Using a pencil, lightly draw the design you want onto the pendant. You could always skip this step and freehand your burning, but I like to plan ahead. It's much easier to erase a pencil line than a woodburned line.

For this pendant I chose a nautilus design.

Step 5: Burn

Using the sketch as a guide, burn your design onto the pendant.

Using the universal tip, I made the background dark, and I burned the edges and back of the pendant as well.

Using the tapered tip, I used pointillism to make the lines of the nautilus. I also made a small initial signature on the back of the pendant.

Using the shading tip, I added some shading to the nautilus shell.

Step 6: Finishing Touches

To finish off your project you could add stains or finishes. Just make sure that they will be safe to be against your skin when they are dried. I chose to keep my pendants free of stains or finishes/

When your pendant is complete you can add any hardware that you will need to make it into a necklace. I looped a leather cord through my pendants.

I took some time to make a pair of matching earring to go with my necklace.

This project was a lot of fun for me, so I also made a second pendant. :)