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Altering Used/New Jewelry……and making it your very own.
January 7, 2011 - By Ashley Johnston 54 Comments
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Sometimes I look for jewelry that I want, and I rarely seem to find exactly what I’m looking for. At least not at the price I’d like it to be.
The other day, while browsing the jewelry section at the store, I realized if I take apart “this” and add it to “that”……then it will better suit my little fancy.
When I got home, I realized that I had other little jewelry pieces that would work great to make changes to.
So if you’re at the store, in your grandma’s jewelry box, or the thrift store………give that odd piece of jewelry a second thought. You may be able to use it to create a whole new piece of jewelry.
(Pieces shown are all from different places……..but include Burlington Coat Factory, Michael’s, my jewelry box, and a hand-me-down…)
I like this necklace on the left but was bored with it and the one on the right is heavy metal and pretty clunky. So I took the one on the right apart……..
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………..added a piece to the one on the left……….
And made it into one necklace.Â
(And still have other metal flowers to use on other projects.)
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That clunky metal flower adds great charm.
Then I bought some of those fresh water pearls…(Man-made of course, from Michael’s, for only a couple of dollars. Are they really pearls then?)…and had a stretchy ring in my jewelry box that I just cut apart.
Then I threaded some of those pearls on some stretchy string (in the jewelry making section at Michael’s) and threaded the metal ring piece right on.
And created a new bracelet.
Nice and simple and lovely. Then I found some of these plain boring cheap-o bracelets for $1 and added a broach to it.
(I used metal jewelry wire to secure it to the 2 bracelets.)
And now I have another bracelet for my collection.
Nice and clunky and shiny. Ready for some love.
Done.
Completely easy, completely unique, and completely addictive.
It sure cuts the time in half to use partially assembled items when making jewelry…….and sure cuts the price down if you’re fancy-ing up something you already have.
Perfect in my book.
Now go raid your collection.