I’m on my “making jewelry from recycled parts” kick again and this time I stumbled across some ways you can make your own jewelry from broken and old compact discs (CDs) and DVDs! Compact discs are essentially made of plastic and don’t break down for hundreds of years and each year millions of free and give-away CDs make it into landfills around the world. AOL actually stopped giving out demo CDs a few years ago because so many people complained that they were being overwhelmed with junk CDs from them. CDs and DVDs used to be prohibitively expensive for breaking up and making into jewelry, but these days you can often find whole racks of $1.00 DVDs which, if you think about it, is actually cheaper than you’d pay for most beads and jewelry supplies!

And while I’ve seen people hang CDs from their rear view mirrors, drink coasters and even tack them up on walls for art, I haven’t seen too many people making jewelry out of CDs and DVDs until I met a women at a craft show a couple weekends ago who was wearing a necklace that was made out of strangely familiar-looking shiny plastic pieces. I asked her about it and she said it was actually from a broken CD and that she had picked it up at another craft show back in the summer.

I did some research and it looks like there are several different ways you can make jewelry out of CDs and DVDs!

Making Jewelry out of CD and DVD pieces

You could probably run a cord through a CD and hang it around your neck and call it a pendant, but let’s assume that our jewelry is going to be a little more sophisticated than that :-). Jewelry made from CDs and DVDs are usually made from pieces, or shards, of CDs after they have been broken or cut, much like the way some ceramic jewelry is made. Essentially you’re going to break the CDs or DVDs into smaller pieces and use them as charms or beads, hanging them from wire or cord as needed.

The trick is learning how to cut CDs. There are lots of different methods, but the general consensus is that you can actually use large paper cutters or even simple scissors to cut CDs evenly and in the pattern you want. Some people advocate warming the CD before you cut it into pieces by putting in a dedicated crafting toaster oven on a low setting (or using a heat gun) for a minute or two to soften up the plastic. Softening the plastic is important because sometimes the CDs shatter when you try to cut them into pieces that would work well in your jewelry ideas.

Once you cut the CDs you can pretty much do anything you would do with any other sort of bead or material. You can paint them and include them in a pendant, you can drill holes in them and make earrings, you can even string a number of little pieces together to make a little chain for a bracelet. The pieces of CD shards can be sharp, so you’ll probably want to sand the edges down and rounding out the corners of any pieces of CDs that are going to lay against the skin.

You may also want to try experimenting with different “types” of CDs. Most old music compact discs are silver in color, but a lot of blank CDs and DVDs come in a lot of different colors including yellows, golds, greens, purples, blues and even some with a reddish tint! And don’t forget that one side of most CDs and DVDs usually has some sort of artwork on it which you can sometimes incorporate into your jewelry for a real unique effect.

Want some really detailed tutorials on making jewelry out of compact discs?

Some of these links below have some great ideas and instructions on how you can combine your bead jewelry making skills with CDs to make some rather unique and interesting jewelry:

Here’s a tutorial from CraftyCrafty showing how you can make your own funky jewelry from CDs. This tutorial shows you what sort of interesting designs you can make by actually putting a CD in your microwave. I’m not sure if this is the safest way to make jewelry

The Crafting A Green World blog has an interesting and thorough article from last year about some of the neat jewelry you make with compact discs or DVDs.

Here are some more wonderful tutorials about making pins out of CDs and DVDs. They use paints, heat guns and about a dozen different tools for all sorts of clever and impressive effects! Some of these are simply stunning!

Debra Koch has posted some tutorials and pictures of her CD and DVD creations as well. They’re wonderfully artsy and modern and have a really wonderfully approachable look to them!

I’ve really only started playing around with making jewelry from old CDs and DVDs a little bit so far. I haven’t quite gotten to the point where I have anything finished and ready to wear or sell. If you have any sort of experience with making jewelry from CDs or DVDs and want to show them off, let me know!