Bicycle Inner Tube Jewelry

Gingko leaf necklace

The next few posts on this blog involve various experiments, all fashioned from a single bicycle inner tube. I've seen the sort of slashed, punked-out necklaces made out of inner tubes before which have their own Mad Max kind of charm, but I wanted to try for something more delicate.

Materials: inner tube, found red wire

Because inner tube rubber is so pliant and soft, you can not only cut it into fairly intricate shapes you can also sew it — in this case with a darning needle and some found red wire from a spool gifted to me by a friend who knows I like intriguing junk and materials.

Rubber gingko leaves

After drawing leaves directly onto the rubber with a ballpoint pen, I cut them out with a pair of small needlework scissors that enable delicate cutting.

Stitching rubber leaves

Happily, the rubber "grabs" the wire, so you can move the leaves up and down the wire, arrange them where you want, and they'll stay in place.

Sewn leaves

The final necklace is lighter than air. I like using a gingko leaf motif on a recycled materials necklace because the gingko is one tough tree, ancient and able to survive the pollution and vicissitudes of modern urban life. It's a survivor during an era of species extinction.