Making Ballroom Dance Jewelry (bracelets, necklaces, hair pieces, etc.)

Note:  First off, apologies if you were expecting a food related post.  In addition to baking, my other hobby is ballroom dancing, and I’m often crafting something for an upcoming ballroom dance competition.  This post is a brief tutorial on how to make silicone-backed ballroom dance jewelry.  And no worries, I’ll be back to food posts soon. 

Silicone backed ballroom jewelry can be expensive to buy.  If you’re a little crafty and have some patience, you can make your own.

Here’s a bracelet I made. It’s held up well and looks great on the competition floor.64370_10101657087590048_1736737903722999371_n

Materials Needed

You’ll probably need to go to the hardware store, a fabric store, and some place that sells rhinestone supplies to gather all your materials.

For Making the Silicone-backed Powernet (this is what supports the jewelry)

  1. Powernet (slightly stretchy material with small holes in it)
    Use nude or another color matching your skin color for bracelets and necklaces; use an  appropriately colored powernet to match your hair color for hair pieces.
    2. Silicone
    This is the kind I use, and I bought it at Home Depot for around $5. It’s usually in the section of the store for caulking supplies. It smells really strong so make sure to use it in a well ventilated area.
    3. Plastic putty “knife”
    This is used to spread the silicone. You can also buy this at Home Depot. spatula
    4. A thick piece of cardboard and parchment paper
    The cardboard from a cereal box will be too flimsy. Try to use cardboard from boxes that things are shipped in. It should be large enough so that you have room to work on your necklace, bracelet, hair piece, etc. on it. You can buy parchment paper at the grocery store in the area for aluminum foil.

For Making Your Jewelry

  1. E6000 craft or other rhinestone glue (I prefer E6000)
    Use a strong glue to ensure your stones stay put.
  2. Rhinestones
    Flat backed rhinestones are the easiest to work with.  I also tend not to use the absolute high end rhinestones like Swarovski for my hair pieces and instead save those for my dresses. I usually use mid-level stones like Preciosa or other Czech brands, but I tend to stay away from using plastic (often Korean or Chinese) stones as they’re too dull looking for me. On the slightly lower cost end of the spectrum but still passable quality, I like Clarus rhinestones from Nova Rhinestone located in downtown Los Angeles. Bohemian Crystal  in downtown Los Angeles also has a huge selection of Swarokski and Preciosa stones as well as other stoning supplies.
  3. Toothpick with one end covered in wax, or another other tool used to pick up and place rhinestones
  4. Scissors (to cut the powernet into your jewelry pattern)



There are several steps that you need to take before you can start gluing on your rhinestones and creating your jewelry. But once you do all the prep, things should go faster the next time around.

  1. Cover your thick cardboard with parchment paper.  Tape (scotch tape will not work) or glue the paper to the cardboard, so both pieces don’t move around while you work. Make sure your cardboard/parchment paper is large enough to fit your entire piece you will be making. It’s always good to leave a little extra room.
  2. Place a double layer of powernet on the parchment/cardboard. Make sure there aren’t any wrinkles in the fabric.
  3. Work in a well ventilated area, because the next part involves some strong fumes. Using the plastic putty knife, spread a thin layer of the silicone all over the double layer of powernet. Work quickly so that the silicone does not harden up and form clumps. You want a uniform, thin layer of silicone. Don’t worry about the silicone going through the powernet onto the parchment paper. Your powernet will peel off of the parchment paper when the silicone dries. Let the silicone dry for a couple of hours or even overnight. If you feel like the silicone powernet is sturdy enough to hold the weight of the stones you’ll be using, then one layer of silicone may be enough. However, it’s better to spend the time to put on a second layer of silicone to reinforce the powernet, especially if you plan to use some rhinestones that are larger than 20ss. The reinforced powernet will ensure your jewelry lasts longer.
  4. You might want to make extra silicone-backed powernet so that you have extra for the next time you make jewelry, and you can skip this step next time.

Designing Your Jewelry

  1. While you’re waiting for you silicone-backed powernet to dry, you can spend some time looking for inspiration and designing your jewelry. Some of my favorite inspiration sites for simple as well as beautifully intricate designs for bracelets, necklaces, and hair pieces are: and
  2. Create a template by drawing an outline of your design on thick paper or thin cardboard (cardboard from a cereal box works well here), and cut the design out.

Making Your Jewelry

After all that prep, you’re finally ready to start making your jewelry. Read through all the instructions before starting.

  1. Peel your powernet from the parchment paper. Turn it over on the parchment so that the side that was originally facing down is now facing up. The side that was originally facing down on the parchment paper will now be the FRONT side of your jewelry. You will be gluing stones on this side of the powernet. The side that you spread the silicone on is your BACK side (the side that will be touching your skin or hair). Using the template you cut out, trace the design onto your silicone backed powernet. You can trace it on the back or front side, but remember to reverse the tracing if you trace it onto the back side of the powernet.
  2. Using your traced template as a guide, glue (using e6000 or other rhinestone glue) your stones on to the FRONT side of the powernet. Make sure to leave some room on the powernet for any attachments (Velcro, hooks, etc.), if needed. (Note: If you want, you can place your stones to get a sense of what they will look like before gluing. This can be an important step if you’re using some large or centerpiece stones that you need to be placed in a specific area. I tend to place and glue larger or centerpiece stones down first, and then I fill in the spaces with the smaller stones. But use whatever method works best for you.)
  3. Once you’ve finished gluing on your stones, and the glue has dried, carefully cut out your design from the powernet. I usually wait to cut out my design until after all the stones are on, because you never know quite how the stones will align themselves.
  4. Add any attachments or closures like Velcro (my favorite) or hooks, as needed.

Hope this is helpful!

16 thoughts on “Making Ballroom Dance Jewelry (bracelets, necklaces, hair pieces, etc.)

  1. Hi
    I just tried this method and the crystals with E6000 peeled right off from the power net/silicone. What did I do wrong? Is it the silicone? Is it that I didn’t wait long enough?


    • Hi! I used a very specific kind of silicone, and that worked for me, so you might want to check what type you used. Also, I applied a very thin layer of silicone on the power mesh, and I waited 24 hours for it to dry. When your rhinestones peeled off, did the silver backing on the rhinestone peel off too? If so then it might be an issue with your rhinestones. The backing of some of the less expensive rhinestones will peel off more easily. Swarovskis are expensive stones to use, so I tend to go with Preciosas and have had good luck with them staying put. I also sometimes use a higher end cheap rhinestone (that’s not plastic) called Clarus that’s Korean made ( I’ve found that cheaper stones are more likely to peel off though. Hope this helps!

      Liked by 1 person

    • Yes, medium weight powernet works well. I tend to get my fabric and materials at the LA Garment District where lots of stuff is not marked/labelled well, so I mostly go by feel of the fabric without knowing if it’s actually labelled as light or medium weight. And if the mesh is too light weight, I’ll double up on it. It depends…


    • I glue the velcro on using E6000. For thicker/wider bracelets, I prefer to use velcro because it’s sturdier. I dance American smooth, and we have a lot of strongly weighted hand and wrist connections while I dance so I want to make sure my bracelets stay put. If I have a daintier/thinner bracelet, I will use snaps because velcro will be too bulky. For me, hooks can be a little difficult to clasp with one hand. Hope this helps!


      • Hello, Thank you for your ideas, I dance Standard and Latin. I Can’t wait to try to make my own bracelet and then necklace. How do you cut the pattern into the cutout of the bracelet? Before or after the stones are glued on?


      • I lay out my stone design first. I use pencil to lightly draw in guidelines, and then I play around with stone placement. Once I have that figured out, I glue the stones on. After everything has dried, I cut out the bracelet using fine tipped scissors.


    • I’ve cut out Venetian lace trim and rhinestoned that to make bracelets and hair pieces. The bracelets were a bit floppy, but the hair pieces worked well.


      • You can always use stiffener like they used to use for doilies, but stiffen before you stone. (Starch) I always use pants hooks for the bracelets. The snaps open up. Velcroe is best when they are not too heavy. Or bangle bracelets with boning….


  2. Hi I have 2 types of powernet, the 1 is a 4 way stretch and it seemed to get a bit wrinkled when smearing on the silicone. Is it better to use the harder or firmer one that only stretches very slightly in a 2way direction? What have you used here as the pic looks the same as both the nets i have?


  3. Could you please explain how you attach your Velcro and fasteners? How to do attach the Velcro to the silicon and disguise? Do you spread the silicon to the edges of the bracelets or do you leave some fabric silicon free to attach the fasteners?


  4. Hi there!

    Thank you for the great tutorial! I have the same problem as Mia (first comment), the rhinestones just peel off. I googled it and it seems, that literally NOTHING sticks on silicone except more silicone… did the silicone sip trough your powernet? And how do you manage to spread the silicone evenly and without getting wrinkels in the fabric? I used the same kind of silicone as you as far as I can tell and it´s very thick and not easy to spread 😦 I know your post is almost a year old, but I would be SO greatfull, if I got an answer from you. Thank you for the great work!

    Kind regards,


    • HI Bianca, It’s been a while since I’ve made anything new, but based on memory, I apply just enough silicone to give some structure to the powernet. So, some silicone does seep through to the other side, but it’s not a thick layer. I use a small plastic putty knife ( to spread the silicone, but it really isn’t too easy to do because it’s sticky and things do get messy. Dana mentioned using stiffener which I haven’t done before, but it might end up being easier to work with than silicone, although I don’t know if it would provide enough structure for the powernet. I haven’t tried it yet. I’m not sure how to troubleshoot the issue with the rhinestones peeling off. If I make something again soon, I’ll see if I can figure that out and post a follow up comment. Sorry I don’t have much more info as I haven’t made anything new in a while and haven’t been experimenting with it.


  5. I had the same issue with inexpensive rhinestones peeling right off, but have had success with the Swarovski crystals. But I’m having the same problem gluing the velcro on. It won’t stick. I realize after reading some responses that I used too much silicone. Does anyone know if I can sew through the silicone to attach the Velcro?


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