You don't need expensive materials for craft projects. I used fish scales to make this brooch. Since I could not decide on the color, I made it multi-colored. This brooch will suit clothes of any color and will spice up your outfit.
Total Time: Preparing of scales 2 hours, making the brooch 1 hour
Yield: 1 brooch with a diameter of 1.5 inches.
Supplies:
- Fish scales of a big fish - I used ide (orfe, Leuciscus idus)
- 1 Brooch pin / safety pin
- Copper wire 0.8 mm
- Instant glue
- Rainbow dyes: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet
- Water
- Vinegar 9%
- 1 Bowl
- 1 Wire cutters
- 2 Pliers
- 1 Metal nail file
- 1 Ruler
- 1 Towel
- 1 Spoon
- Rubber gloves
- Paper
- Plastic wrap
- 1 Pot with boiling water
Steps:
- Mix in a bowl water and vinegar in a ratio of 1 to 2. Add scales to remove smell of fish. Wait about 1-2 hours.
- Wash very good the scales in water until the slimy substance is removed.
Remove the scales from the water and let it dry very good on the towel. 
- Select the 10-15 smallest scales to form the center of the rose. You have to dye them red.
Dying:
Heat water to near boiling and pour into a cup.
Shake the dye, add it to the water and stir. The more dye you use, the darker and more saturated the color will be. Be sure to read the coloring guidelines for your dye.
Put on rubber gloves and soak the fish scales in the dye solution. Let it sit in the solution for 10 min.
Then remove the colored scales and let them dry well on a paper. - In the same way, select and dye the scales in the other colors of the rainbow: yellow, green, blue, indigo, the biggest scales in the violet. Mix dyes to get the color you want.
- Bend the piece of wire in half.
- Place the non-moving part of the pin where the wire was bent. While holding the bent end of the wire with pliers, twist the ends of the wire with the second pair of pliers. Be careful not to damage the pin.
Trim the ends of the wire and round off the edges.
- Bend the smallest red scale in a semicircle. Apply some instant glue to the bottom of the scale and glue it to the wire base.
- Glue one by one the orange scales.
- Glue the yellow scales.
- Glue the green scales.
- Glue the blue scales.
- Glue the indigo scales.
- Glue the remaining violet scales.
Catherine
Bronze Feedback Medal for All Time! 131 Feedbacks April 19, 20210 found this helpful
You have renewed a technique that was perhaps traditional. I have an old brooch, which I bought in England. It is a sailboat included in transparent bakelite (?). It took me a while to see that her sails are made with fish scales. The color and shape of the scales mimic the wind-blown sails of a ship very well. I'll post a picture asap. Well done for this brooch.
DianaHM
Silver Answer Medal for All Time! 440 Answers April 19, 20210 found this helpful
Thank you!! :) Of course, people used to make jewelry out of fish scales. To be honest, I don't know what technique has been used before. It's good that we now have adhesives that can be used to glue anything. It was interesting for me to try to make something out of fish scales.
When I made this brooch, I asked one of my friends to guess what I made it from. He could not guess :) It will be very interesting for me to see your brooch! I like antiques.
