Creepy Eye Necklaces with Lessons Learned

I was at my local art museum last year (on April 11, during our state conference--and I remember it was April 11 because that's my husband's birthday AND the day my mom fell and broke her arm.  Pretty much seared into my memory) and saw this little case of these eye miniature necklaces, broaches and rings.  I ended up rushing out when my mom's husband called, but made myself a quick little note.  I ordered these bottle cap like things to use this year in making them:

I didn't really have an idea of where I'd work it in.  The back story of these "Lover's Eyes" is that in 1790 the prince of Whales was in love with a divorced Catholic woman.  The crown wouldn't recognize the marriage, and he had an artist do a watercolor painting on ivory of just her eye, and then wore it around his neck, under his clothes, as she was his secret lover (maybe they got married? I'm a little fuzzy on the details, as I wasn't going to get into secret lovers with sixth graders).  In their classrooms, students started a unit on refugees, reading books on the Holocaust and discussing them.  In art, we read this article and talked about what role art plays in the world.  Some very interesting ideas and discussions ensued.  Aaaannnnndddd, I didn't/still don't really know where we're going, but decided to work eye miniatures in as a witness to all we see.
Then I spent way too long trying to make strips of circles on the computer to photocopy for students (they kept printing out as ovals).  Finally I decided good enough, photocopied and cut the paper into strips of six circles.  We watched a few short YouTube clips on drawing eyes (there's TONS out there) and got to work:

At home I was busily hot gluing hemp cord to the bottle caps:

Stacking them like this and then putting 30 in ziplock bags seemed
to be the best way to transport them without them tangling into a giant mess.

The expectation was for students to draw six eyes, choose their favorites and color those (at least two, preferably three) with watercolor pencil:

Next we paainted them with water and tiny brushes, [here's the lesson learned part] and I should've had them dry completely before busting out the Modge Podge:

Students chose their favorite/best one, cut it out and added it to the bottle-cap-glued-to-hemp:

We used popsicle sticks 'cause ain't no one got time to try to
clean a paint brush full of Modge Podge.  Tiny bit of Modge Podge to glue them
to the bottle cap and a thick layer on top to give them a glossy look.

A couple of them have a brown edge to them now that they're drying:

They're turning out so cool/creepy that they're really a big hit with the 11 & 12 year old crowd.  
Now to decide on our next refugee project.  For now, I'm leaning towards a more choice based idea.