Using the Treasure Trove - How Do You Tame A Tassel?

One of the first things I pulled from the treasure trove of upcycled goodies to experiment with was tassels. There are basically two types: the shorter versions, which are typically more of a cotton fiber and were more often in pairs; and longer tassels, which are a silky-rayon fiber, usually only one of each color or shade in each trim sample.

Some of the shorter tassels are visible in the lower left quadrant, 

while the longer tassels are in the upper right corner.

So, pairs of tassels = earrings! I made beaded bands for some, kind of like belly bands. Others I left unadorned and dangled from larger beads. 

They were fun, they were flirty, and they were MESSY! In the process of dislodging them from the sample books they were glued into when I brought them home, the fibers suffered a bit in the process. There's a difference between boho chic earrings and earrings that look like they've been on three-day benders.

Poor baby. She looks rough.

Moistening individual strands didn't really do the trick to straighten them out. So I took a deep breath one day and full on dunked them. I swirled them in water. I treated them like a donut in a glass of milk. When the fibers were saturated, I hung them all up and worked the tassels straight, and left them to dry.

It worked!

The single tassels seemed destined for pendants, so I combined them with some cabochons made from upcycled upholstery fabric remnants. There are only a couple so far, but these elegant ladies were much better behaved and avoided the dunking. I'm sure part of it has to do with the difference in what the tassels are made of, but it was nice to have them put up less of a fight. The luster of these tassels would work well with a gemstone cabochon, which is what I think I'll use next.

  

What's in Your Purse?

Today, I decided to clean out and change my purse. This is not an activity I undertake frequently or lightly, as the bottom of my purse usually resembles an archeological dig more than a proper lady's accessory.

I totally fail the Proper Southern Lady Handbag test. On an epic scale that would give Scarlett O'Hara the vapors.

Anyway, on today's excavation, even a novice archeologist could have learned that I am a beader. Here's what was left at the bottom when the wallet, cell phone, four dozen pens, three sad lip glosses, and 2,000 crumpled receipts were gone:

Please overlook the crumbs from some long-lost package of saltines I pilfered from a restaurant somewhere along the way. I told you I failed at Proper Southern Lady.

I'm not even entirely sure when or how these treasures got into my purse. But hey, it's beady treasure, so -- woohoo!

Ruby Red Upcycling

So a while back, I went to an antique mall and found some fabulous sterling silver clip-on earrings. From the size and the look of them, I figured they were from the 60's or 70's. I blogged about them, and the other treasures I found that day back in February of last year (my, how time flies!).

They were also pretty hefty in size. Flip one over and you could almost serve cocktails from it. These belonged to a bold woman back in the day. Not really in style anymore.

But to me they screamed "focal piece."

And then they lived on my bead table for a couple of months.

This photo shows what I did with one of them -- paired it with luscious faceted ruby red crystals, vintage clear crystals, and Bali silver.

I'd have taken a better picture of it, but it went to a gallery soon after it was made, so I only have this shot taken with my phone.

Yippee! Reduce, reuse, recycle, preferably with ruby red crystals!

No to go figure out what to do with that other earring....

The sparkle never dims

A lovely customer of mine has been cleaning out her mom's basement, discovering some beautiful vintage jewelry and clothing that belonged to her aunt and other family members. She passed along a number of the pieces to me, saying, "Have fun and see what you can make out of these for me."

Seriously. Can you believe the luck?

It's like the Bead Fairy opened up her sack and said, "would you like some free goodies to play with?"

Um, yes, please.

Among the goodies was a set of star-shaped buttons from an old cardigan, and a rhinestone necklace that was beautifully retro but not her taste. Here's what I had to work with:

and

She requested a bracelet from the buttons, and gave me free reign to make anything I could figure out from the necklace. The buttons turned out to be a real challenge, since they were slightly domed with a concave back, and were quite heavy for their size. The trick became finding other beads that would snug up to the shank of the button, while allowing for the curvature of the button's body and supporting the weight enough to prevent the buttons from flopping around.

After a few (okay, five or six) false starts with other designs, I finally settled on some black faceted Czech glass beads in a multi-strand weave. I left the construction of the clasp ends of the bracelet flexible enough to allow me to adjust the finished piece to the customer's wrist. Here's the final product:


The necklace had so many fun components to use. I used the bow as an asymmetrical bit of sparkle in a necklace of faceted, rutilated quartz beads. And forgot to take a picture of it (FAIL). But here is a pair of clip-on earrings from other part of the necklace:

They have the same faceted Czech glass as the button bracelet, so she can wear them with the bracelet or the necklace if she wants.

Big, big, sparkly fun! Next time I'll have some jewelry with more than just silver and black, I promise.

And I've encouraged my customer to go treasure hunting in that basement again soon!

Treasure Hunting and Upcycling

One of my favorite recently-heard terms in the beading world is "upcycling" -- that is, recycling and reusing old jewelry bits and other fabulous stuff that can have a new life in wearable art. I really love the implication that you're not only giving something new life, but raising it to a new level. It's something I've dabbled a bit with in the past, but was itching to jump in on the action again.

So yesterday when I found myself with a little free time (okay, I should have done a few loads of laundry, but you understand) I went to a local antique mall and treasure hunted. There was some truly fabulous eye candy there, including several cases chock full of beautiful old rhinestone jewelry just screaming my name. I tried not to embarass myself by giggling like a kid in a candy shop, drooling excessively over the gorgeousness, or smacking my head into the glass trying to get a closer look. If only I had unlimited funds to answer the call....

But I did find some fun things that I can't wait to work into new pieces --

-- great leaf-shaped earrings with rhinestones and faux pearls, some rocking huge pierced silver earrings (nearly 2" in diameter and 3/4" high. Seriously, the woman who wore these originally must have been able to pick up radio signals from space with these babies!), and a lovely Victorian style silver, marcasite and black crystal necklace that was a steal at only $10. (I know! I was amazed, too!)

They'll probably have to live with me a while until they tell me exactly what they want to be in their next life, but rest assured that they'll show up here after their upcycling!