Hot Glue + Popsicle Sticks = Secret Wood

Hello, crafty friends!

Do you remember the "secret wood" trend? I believe it had its peak around 2016. It's normally a combination of resin and wood - specifically, the wood is normally broken so that the fibres stand out.

I already tried recreating the look with hot glue in this instructable, but it requires fire and carving, so it's not the easiest project.

This new version using popsicle sticks is more simple - you can make a pendant in no time. It's a secret wood project that doesn't require power tools or resin, so more people can try it out :)

• hot glue
• popsicle stick
• scissors
• silicone or baking paper
• map tack
• jump ring or wire
• necklace cord or chain

Optional:

• craft knife
• file or sand paper
• paint and paintbrush
• clear glue or nail polish
• markers
• glow-in-the-dark glue sticks
• wire cutters

That way, you get a treat and you can reuse the popsicle sticks :)

You can of course also use store-bought ones - I happened to have some colorful ones at home.

You can use wooden spoons too!

Use your hands or pliers to break your popsicle stick in a beautiful way!

You could just break the popsicle on both sides, but if you want a clean cut on one side, you will need a craft knife. I scored the wood repeatedly until it cut all the way through.

I've also seen people use strong scissors to cut popsicle sticks.

Then you can also sand the wood for a more refined look.

You can give the wood all kinds of looks using whatever paints you have - watercolors, acrylic paint, etc.

You can even use markers, although it might be hard to color the breaking points.

It looks pretty cool to give the breaking points contrasting colors to the wood :)

If you want a hole in the wood portion of the pendant, the best time to do that is probably before painting it (but I forgot).

I poked it with a map tack, trying to resist the urge to wiggle the needle, because that just makes the wood split.

In general, this is hard to do without splitting the wood, so you can skip this part and poke a hole in the glue later on instead.

Any type of hot glue can be used, as long as it has a little transparency.

You will get the most transparent pendants using silicone with a shiny surface. If you don't have that, you can go for a matte look with baking paper or matte silicone.

Here I'm using a shiny silicone mat for both sides.

The process is exactly the same if you use baking paper or matte silicone:

Put some glue down, add the wooden piece on top and cover that with more glue. Then press it down with the silicone on top and a flat object. Wait until everything has cooled down and peel it off.

Use strong and sharp scissors to shape your pendant. Also, it's easier to cut straight lines than to cut curves.

This is actually easier than poking a hole in the wood.

Just get the needle through the glue and jump rings should poke through as well (trying to make the hole wider doesn't really work, it just distorts the glue).

You can use store-bought jump rings or make your own with wire.

One method to give your pendant some color is to color it with markers or fineliners. Once you got enough ink on it, you can use clear glue and a brush to coat the pendant and blend the colors.

Alternatively, you can use permanent markers and seal them with clear nail polish.

I'm using an old nail polish brush to coat the pendant and blend the colors, because I want my clear nail polish to stay clear :) You can clean the old brush with nail polish remover afterwards.

If you have glow-in-the-dark glue sticks, you can make cool glowing pendants. But you could use glowing paint or nail polish as well.

In the first picture, some clear glue left in my glue gun mixed with the glowing glue - I thought it looked quite cool.

Thanks for checking this out, maybe you learned something new and stick around for the next project! ;)