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World of WarCrafts: How to make Lynnora's decorative Horde pendant

Anne Stickney
Updated ·6 min read

World of WarCrafts spotlights art and creativity by WoW players, including fan art, cooking, comics, cosplay, music, fan fiction and more. Sample the whole spectrum on our Arts and Crafts in WoW page.

I love getting submissions for World of WarCrafts, especially do-it-yourself projects! Today's submission is from Lynnora of the Silvermoon server (EU-A). Longtime readers of World of WarCrafts may recall the name from a column on bleach T-shirts a couple of years ago. Lynnora's still crafting away and comes to us this week with a how-to for a simple project that anyone can complete -- a Horde pendant suitable for a necklace, keychain, or whatever your imagination can come up with!

What makes this project so easy? Well, the materials to make it, for starters: plastic bags. Say what? That's right, we've got a new use for those plastic bags hanging around your house, a technique called fusing. Check out the gallery for a visual step-by-step, and follow us after the break for the full tutorial from Lynnora!

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Lynnora writes ...

Hello! I'm Lynnora from Silvermoon-EU and very pleased to offer you a tutorial to a really easy-to-make Horde pendant (or keychain... or whatever use you find for it!). The best part of this is that you probably have everything you will need already at home.

This pendant is made from fused plastic bags -- recycling is the word today! Save the environment, support the Horde! This means the pendant will be more or less waterproof; it will be sturdy and robust. And best of all, it's free and fun to make. The Alliance crest is too complicated to work with for this project, unfortunately, since it is made up of so many tiny and delicate pieces.

We will be needing:

  • A red plastic bag (any will do -- grocery bag, trash bag, or even plastic wrappers from your favorite spaghetti)

  • Some clear plastic (wrapper of something for example, or freezer bag)

  • Scissors

  • An iron with adjustable heat

  • Waxed paper (the brown/white paper you use to bake stuff in the oven) or freezer paper

  • A cord or string or ribbon or shoelace

  • Tiny rings, thread or a paperclip

  • Optional: red or clear nail polish

  • Pick your bag. Any red bag will do. Make sure you don't use the top or the bottom part where the plastic is sewn together, or the handles -- just the body of the bag.

  • Cut your pieces! You will want to cut pieces a bit bigger than the pendant you plan to make, because the plastic may shrink a bit. I used eight layers of plastic, but try to experiment with it to have it your way. If you use a very thin bag, you may have to pile up more or less, depending on the thickness of your plastic.

  • Pick your clear plastic. This is where your clear plastic comes in. Pile up the pieces of red plastic you cut; the top and bottom piece will have their red color facing outward. The red color will mess up, though, if you don't put a clear plastic layer on top of it. So place a clear plastic layer on the bottom as well as on the top of your pile of red pieces.

  • Pile your pieces. Pile your pieces up nicely and put the pile in between freezer paper or waxed paper. This will prevent your plastic from sticking to your iron. You can't iron over the plastic; there should always be waxed paper in between, both on top as well as below the pile.

  • Time to fuse! This is where the fun comes in; we start fusing your bag pieces now! Set your iron heat to rayon or just the lowest possible heat. Remember, Garrosh does not like it if you leave your iron unattended, so pay attention at all times when using it! Slowly start ironing over the paper; you will notice if you have to put up the heat a bit or put it down. If you heat it up too much, there will be holes in the plastic, and we don't want that. This won't be done in a minute -- you will need some patience as the heat works its way through all the layers of plastic. Keep moving your iron, and alternate by flipping the pile over and ironing the other side. You can check up on the plastic at all times; just mind that it may be a bit hot to the touch. After a while, you can turn the heat up a little bit and run your iron over the paper to finish off the last layer.

  • Smush it flat. Now, when you see your plastic has completely fused and it feels like a sheet more or less, put something heavy on top of it while it cools down. This way, it won't curl up (don't worry if it has already, though -- it'll work itself out). At any point while processing your plastic, the top layer of clear plastic may come off. This is perfectly normal, and it's fine! If it stays on, that's fine too.

  • For the Horde! Trace a Horde symbol on your sheet of plastic. You can either trace it on printer paper as I did, directly from your computer screen, draw it freehand, or print it. Then cut it with your scissors. Check on your fused plastic to see if it has a better-looking side, and make sure that will be the front of the pendant.

  • Stab it. Poke three holes in it. I used a tapestry needle, but you can use anything sharp -- a pen, scissors, a nail, a screw, or a paperclip. The third hole will be in the diamond-shaped thingy. Check the picture in the guide before you poke your holes.

  • Attach it. Attach rings (I used some rings I had lying around the house, but you can use a paperclip, just some simple thread or wire, or anything you can get your hands on!) and a cord, or a shoelace, or a ribbon, or even a keychain ring!

  • Make touch-ups. It's okay if it looks rough or a bit distorted -- we're Hordies, so we get to look improvised and rough-edged. For a really neat finished-off look, though, you can use clear nail polish if you like the look of your fused plastic. Some clear nail polish on the sides as well will seal your pendant even more securely and will add some glam to it. This is completely optional, however.

For an additional touch, you can even polish it red if you do not like how your red color turned out or if you just like a really shiny Horde pendant, as I did. The finished ones on my pictures are all polished red. The unpolished plastic is as shown on picture #8, but results may vary depending on the bag you used. The nail polish will hold really well!

I hope you have enjoyed my tutorial, and please do share any pictures if this happens to have brought you inspiration! I have had at least a dozen comments already wearing this. Happy fusing!

Thank you so much for the tutorial, Lynnora!

World of WarCrafts spotlights art and creativity by WoW players, including arts and crafts, fan art, WoW-themed recipes, comics, cosplay, music and fan fiction. Show us how you express yourself by emailing anne@wowinsider.com with your not-for-profit, WoW-inspired creations.