I recently stumbled across a photo of what appeared to be antique-looking brooches featuring gothic quotations, but eventually tracked them down to an Etsy shop and found that what was actually being sold were digital collage sheets and the photo was just a suggested use for them.

Fortunately, such brooches–and other jewelry–would be ridiculously simple to DIY. All you need are brooch findings (also called brooch bases and brooch blanks and if you search for “brooch” long enough it stops looking like a word any more), some kind of image-manipulation software, and a color printer.

The bases are easy enough to locate; they can be found in the jewelry-making section of most craft stores, or online: Places like Fire Mountain Gems have pin backs and pendants and even button covers if you want to use short quotes and write teeny. These photo brooches are nice, and you can also finds loads of different styles on Etsy, like this one.

Next, use Photoshop or a similar program to create an image with an appropriate quotations. You can use special-effect brushes to create interesting filigree backgrounds, or draw freehand (you can also do this sans computer if you want to be all low-tech about it). I did a sample up above, using part of a poem by Pablo Neruda. Other ideas might be:

Listen to them — children of the night. What music they make.
— Bram Stoker, Dracula

Now it is the time of night
That the graves, all gaping wide,
Every one lets forth his sprite
In the churchway paths to glide
— Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Sometimes human places create inhuman monsters.
— Stephen King, The Shining

Make sure the image will fit your jewelry finding, print it out, and cut it to shape. Glue in place, and if you aren’t using a finding with a cover, give it a couple of coats of a clear sealer like Mod Podge to protect it.

Easy! Cheap! A fun gift idea, and also a good project to do with kids. A bunch of these with different quotations would look good arranged on a purse or jacket.