Tips for Buying Sterling Silver Jewelry

Mock Silver Jewelry Dress up for your Cinco de Mayo party with this festive mock silver jewelry you can make yourself.Dried pasta (tubes, wheels, macaroni, etc.)StringScissorsNeedleTurquoise and silver paintPaintbrushesPencilTraditional Mexican jewelry is often made of silver, set with turquoise stones. Make your own out of pasta, string, some paint, and lots of imagination. Use an assortment of pasta. If the pasta you choose doesn't have holes to thread, have an adult make a hole in the pasta with a needle.If you want to make a necklace, cut a length of string and shape it into a loop big enough to fit over your head. Make it a little longer than that so you have enough thread to make the knot. Then lay out your pasta shapes along the loop in different arrangements until you get one you like. You might want to write numbers lightly in pencil on the pasta so you know the order in which to string them.Now you can paint the pasta in silver and turquoise. You might paint alternating colors, or paint the whole necklace silver except for the middle 2 pasta pieces. Follow your own design sense!Lay the pasta out to dry in the same arrangement in which you will thread them. When the paint is dry, thread the pasta on the string, and knot the string ends.Now that you've got the jewelry to dress up in, create maracas to make music to dance to! See the next page for instructions.