Do you want to try your hand at making DIY breast milk jewelry? It’s easier than you might think, especially if you love crafts.
I never ordered a breast milk ring with my oldest, so when I had my daughter, I knew I wanted something to celebrate all the hours I spent breastfeeding.
I looked at all the options. There are amazing businesses that create works of art, but I also love to do things myself. So, I wanted to see how easy it would be to make my own jewelry.
If you’re wondering if you can make breast milk jewelry, here’s what you need to know.
This post may contain affiliate links which I would receive a small commission should you make a purchase.
What is Breast Milk Jewelry?
Breast milk jewelry is the perfect way to remember and treasure your breastfeeding journey with your baby. The jewelry can be anything, but the most common are rings and necklaces.
Your breastfeeding journey is precious, and you deserve something to commemorate this experience!
If you’re the crafty type, you might want to try making DIY breast milk jewelry at home. It has a bit of a learning curve, especially if you’ve never made jewelry at home, but if you’re up for some crafting time, give it a whirl!
If you aren’t a crafty person, many small businesses make breast milk jewelry. You’ll have to ship your breastmilk to a jeweler and usually wait up to eight weeks for the piece to come back. Sometimes, it’s longer!
Find a Breast Milk Jewelry Kit
When making DIY breast milk jewelry, you have two choices: buy a jewelry kit or make it yourself and buy the supplies needed.
If you decide to use a kit, here are some options you might want to try.
Maid in the Woods Preservation Kit
Maid in the Woods sells a preservation kit for a great price that includes everything you need, and their shop has different accessories that you can buy. You’ll need to select jewelry extra.
Milk and Honey Jewelry Kit
Milk and Honey offers a DIY Breast Milk Jewelry Kit, which is an awesome option. The kit offers enough materials to create up to 15 pieces of jewelry with one batch of breast milk. Of course, you’ll need to buy the jewelry pieces separately, but everything else in this kit.
Lackto DIY Milk Kit
Lackto sells easy-to-use kits with everything you need to make one of their adorable pendants. The instructions are easy to follow, and they often have sales up to 50% off, so watch their websites.
Tree of Opals Ring Kit
If you know that you want a ring, Tree of Opals offers a DIY Ring Kit that has everything you need. You select between resin sparkle mixes or pearly mixes that are more subtle.
How to Preserve Breast Milk for Jewelry
Depending on the directions or kit you select, you might have to preserve breast milk to make jewelry. The goal is to stop the milk from going bad and growing bacteria.
It’s not always necessary, though!
I’ll walk you through the process of using breast milk instead of preserved, but if you have to preserve your milk, here’s what you need to do.
- Find out how much milk you need; each kit has a different amount. Many want at least 5 millileters of room temperature breast milk.
- Grab a double boiler or make a double boiler with a bowl on top of a pot.
- Mix a packet of preservation powder that comes with your kit or that you bought separately.
- Keep stirring until you create a thick paste. Turn off the heat.
- Bring the paste over to a baking sheet with parchment paper and spread it out as thin as possible with a silicone spatula.
- Let this dry in a cool place for 48 hours.
- Once dried, grind this into a powder using a mortar and pestle or the back of a spoon.
How Long Does It Take to Preserve Breast Milk for Jewelry?
Typically, if you’re preserving milk at home, the preservation process takes between two and four days. However, if you use the steps listed above, it’s only two days!
Supplies Needed to Make DIY Breast Milk Jewelry
I watched a lot of YouTube videos and read all the instructions on how to make jewelry. Some swear by a “magic dust,” but the ones I like the most use simple supplies.
If I wanted to spend a ton of money on supplies, I would pay for someone to make it for me!
Here are the supplies you need to make breast milk jewelry.
- Fresh Breast Milk
- Blank Ring or Necklace (or whatever)
- Mod Podge Dimensional Magic
- Epoxy Resin
- Cornstarch
- Fine-Grit Nail File
- Ring Holder
- Cups and Sticks (resin making)
- Silver Leaf (optional)
- Mica (optional)
How to Make DIY Breast Milk Jewelry: The Steps
If you don’t want to preserve your milk, here are the simple steps to making breast milk jewelry.
1. Combine Breast Milk and Mod Podge
The first step is to take equal amounts of fresh breast milk and Mod Podge and combine them in a cup.
You don’t need a lot! Remember, this is going into a ring or a necklace; you don’t need large quantities unless you make more than one piece of jewelry.
All you need is 1/8 teaspoon of each – or less.
2. Mix in Cornstarch
Now, measure out an equal amount of cornstarch to milk and Mod Podge. So, if you have 1/4 teaspoon, you need 1/4 teaspoon cornstarch.
Mix until it forms a thick paste.
3. Add in Extras
If you want to add silver leaf or mica for coloring, now is the time to add it. Most women prefer the natural color, but I think the silver leaf flakes would look beautiful!
4. Fill The Mold
Take your mixture and fill your blank ring or whatever other type of mold you might use.
Once it dries, it shrinks. It needs to dry for several days. I recommend sticking to smaller molds because they’re less likely to develop cracks along the way.
5. File The “Bead” and Let Dry
Now, remove the “bead” you created in your mold and use a fine-grit nail file to give it a smoother look. Trust me; you’ll love how it looks at this stage.
Now, you have to let the breast milk bead dry out fully. The amount of time this takes varies; if your area has a lot of humidity, expect it to take longer.
Expect the drying process to take anywhere from three to six weeks. If you don’t allow it to dry out fully, the bead will yellow when mixed with the resin, and mold might develop.
6. Time for Resin!
Once the bead is fully dried, it’s time to move to the next step – resin. Following the instructions on the resin that you purchased is vital; you want to mix this properly.
Add a small amount of resin into the ring blank, and place the milk bead into the blank on top. Then, top the bead with resin; it will look like it’s about to spill over the sides.
The goal is for the bead to be fully stuck and formed inside the resin.
Use a lighter to burn the bubbles from the surface of the resin.
7. Let Cure
Now, let it cure. Read your resin package and see how long your brand tells you that it needs to cure.
Once that time is over, it’s time to wear your new jewelry!
Making DIY breast milk jewelry is a fun craft that celebrates all the time you spent feeding your baby. So buy a kit, or buy the supplies and get started!
