DIY Tusk Necklace

June 2, 2015

Last summer I watched a coworker’s dog while she was in China and she brought me back this amazing tusk. I think she almost didn’t believe my other coworkers when they told her this was something that I’d love but she ended up bringing it back anyways. I’m SO glad she did because it was a really fun project to tackle.

After some Googling, I think that the tusk comes from a wild boar. While I’ll never know for sure, when you Google “wild boar tusk China” you get a lot of images that look similar to the tusk on my necklace.

To make a necklace of your own you’ll need:
-Tusk (Search “Boar tusk” or “wild boar tusk” on Ebay or Etsy and you’ll find what you need.)
-Chain
-Drill to drill holes in tusk
-Jump rings
-Wire

First you need to take your drill and use the smallest drill bit you have to get through the tusk. I used a piece of scrap wood + a towel to make sure I didn’t drill into my floor.

Next, stick one end of the wire in one of the holes you drilled to start wrapping. Wrap the wire tightly around the tusk until it’s at a width that you like. And make sure it is really tight! After that, gather a cluster of 4-6 wires and feed them around the first wire you wrapped around the tusk.

I found it really helpful to stick a needle between the wire and the tusk to feed the wire down and back up. To make the wire look more aesthetically pleasing, twist the 4-6 wires together tightly. Once you’ve fed the wire through, twist the two sides of the wire together at the top of your wrapped wire. Then twist all of the twisted wire clusters together to make the loops for your chain to attach.

I took these photos around the holidays on my friend Emily. (Been a bit out of blogging habit when it comes to documenting projects. :O)

I took these photos on a day trip to Rockville, Indiana. When my friends and I were in college, we used to come to this town all the time to visit the antique shops and go on country drives. It was so nostalgic to visit that place again a few years later.