Amanda Reynolds, right, helps fellow Fashion Club member Victoria Ferrara with her shrinky dink design.

Photo Credit: Deborah Gauthier

A pendant and bracelet made by Northbridge High School student Amanda Reynolds from shrink plastic.

Photo Credit: Deborah Gauthier

NORTHBRIDGE, Mass. – There’s more than meets the eye at Northbridge High School every day. Formal classes may end at 2, but the learning continues at club meetings and athletic practices and games into the late afternoon and evening.

That was the case on Thursday when a group of girls in the Fashion Club met with their adviser, art teacher Jennifer Ferrari.

Ferrari was there only to supervise. The “teacher” was student Amanda Reynolds who came armed with a bag of shrink plastic, inks, stamps and ideas. Ferrari added her personal collection of Sharpies to the mix, and the girls were ready to go.

Reynolds first brought the idea of shrink plastic to Ferrari at a club meeting shortly after Christmas. “It sounded like fun,’’ Ferrari said, “and it fit into the Fashion Club interest which is clothing and jewelry.’’

So she suggested Reynolds teach club members how to make jewelry from the thin plastic, a skill making big money for crafters selling pendants, rings, bracelets, etc. at fairs.

Though Reynolds uses the product with the brand name Shrinky Dinks, flat sheets of plastic that can be bought at craft stores, any #6 recyclable plastic can be used, she said. The material, she said, is inexpensive.

“I’m a very crafty person and I like to find new crafts to do,’’ Reynolds said. She discovered shrink plastic browsing YouTube where she found many tutorials on making jewelry and other things with plastic.

Club member Rachael Zaidel has a warning for anyone using shrink plastic. “It shrinks,’’ she said, pulling out of her pocket a beautifully painted cross that shrunk to the size of a dime, which wasn’t her intention.

It shrinks to about a third of its size, Reynolds said, and the Shrinky Dink packages come with a chart for size planning purposes, she said.

Once the plastic is painted or stamped and cut to size and shape (it breaks easily, don’t use the tip of the scissor), it is put into an oven, preheated to 325 degrees, for one to three minutes.

Another warning, this one from Reynolds who said her heart almost stopped the first time she watched a piece in the oven. It folds up on itself before flattening out. She first thought it had been ruined.

She suggests pressing the piece with something flat as soon as it comes out of the oven. Pieces can be shaped while in the oven, she said, by putting the plastic on something like an oven-safe bowl or cup.

Reynolds said 3D pieces can also be made using a heat gun. She recommends Web tutorials for anyone interested in working with shrink plastic.

There is no oven in the art room at the high school, so Ferrari will bake the pieces in her oven at home over the weekend.