Our latest product to review from Interplay is the My Style "Design and Make Steampunk Jewellery" set. Inspired by the vintage steampunk genre, the set features aesthetic Victorian-esque designs from 19th century steam powered machinery such as cogs, gears, washers, nuts and keys.
The Steampunk set includes everything needed to create eight projects, making necklaces, bracelets and earrings, and comes with a neat little box with compartments to store all the bits and pieces. There are decorative washers, nuts, gears, key charms, angel wing charms and ball chains, in both brass and silver colours, as well as ribbon, earring hooks, jump rings, craft wire, glue and flat nose pliers. Even after the eight projects have been completed there will be plenty of components left over to have a go at designing your own creations. The fully illustrated instruction leaflet has step by step instructions and is easy to follow. A ruler is printed on the bottom of one of the double pages for measuring lengths of ribbon and positioning components, which was extremely handy.
We were very impressed with the contents. It is good quality stuff that looks really cool and funky. The girls were able to complete the projects easily, without having to deal with any fiddly knotting or plaiting techniques - which usually proves their downfall when making jewellery from kits!
The charms fitted to the jump rings and attached to the chains, ribbons or ear hooks. This process worked well using the flat nose pliers which squeezed the metal rings shut tightly. They are a good tool for the job. Using the PVA glue proved a little bit ineffective, so we switched to a stronger clear glue that we had, in order to stick charms together. It worked very well and the pieces have stayed attached after being worn.
This set gets a resounding thumbs up from Kezia and Ella. The finished pieces really are extremely wearable and look shop bought, encapsulating the Steampunk trend very well. The quality of the charms makes the end results look impressive. It is nice to see a craft set inspired by this popular genre, giving girls something edgier and cooler to work with. It suited my daughters perfectly.
Priced at £19.99, this set provides everything needed to make eight pieces of jewellery, and includes the reusable pliers and the storage box, making it excellent value for money. Recommended for ages 8 and over, the projects help develop jewellery making skills and provide inspiration for budding designers to create their own pieces.
You can find the Steampunk Jewellery set at www.interplayuk.com/mystyle/steampunk-jewellery.