Custom Upcycle Reveal

A couple of weeks ago, one of my customers gave me the opportunity to revamp a necklace she inherited from her aunt, into a new piece for her to wear at her son's wedding.

Inherited heirloom?  Son's wedding?  Pictures that will last forever in the family?  No pressure, right?  (insert panicked scream here...)

So after a lot of thought and more than a few nerves when I first cut off the clasp from the rhinestone chain, here's the final product.

The original rhinestone necklace was too short for the neckline of her dress, so I added some chain in the back for length.  Her dress has a gauzy jacket with some beading, so I had to make something that wouldn't compete with the jacket, but wouldn't disappear into blah if she took the jacket off at the reception.  So for that extra little "sumpin sumpin", I added a bracelet of faux pearls and faceted Czech glass that she also had in her jewelry box (how lucky a match was that?!?)

There was a technical challenge in figuring out how to attach the rhinestone chain to the extra chain without soldering (we'll have a little chat someday about the wisdom of trusting me with open flame), but a little wire wrapping took care of it:

And as a bonus, she asked me to try to convert a headband into a bracelet.  My brain went on fritz and I forgot to take a picture of the headband before I performed surgery on it to remove the beaded motif, but imagine this on a skinny black headband:

A little chain, a little thread, and voila! 

I hope my customer is pleased with the final product!  Maybe she'll save me a piece of wedding cake...

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....

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!