Recently I came into possession of my Grandmother’s old, mostly inexpensive, jewelry. My goal is to repurpose / recycle most of it by combining as much as possible with hand made art beads and pendants. Here is my first attempt:
Original necklace with shell chips, ~3mm plastic rounds, 8mm round wood beads and aluminum bead caps.
Finished necklace includes all original components (except the clasp) with addition of 5mm wood rounds, iridescent amber seed beads, copper chain and toggle, while featuring a Virginia Miska pendant.
Leave us a post about your adventures repurposing / recycling – this is gonna be fun!
– Elaine
*melanie* earthenwood studio
September 10, 2007 at 2:44 pmWow, what a big difference, Elaine! This is a great post, and it inspires me to look at all the old garage sale bead necklaces I have been given, to try some repurposing of my own!
christine - handpaintedbeads
September 11, 2007 at 12:45 amJenni Pagano is doing some pretty cool jewelry which uses recycled sweater felt. You all should check it out – the colors are just lovely:
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=54624
If that link doesn’t work, her Etsy ID is:
PaganoDesignWorks
Christine
pagano designworks
September 11, 2007 at 2:16 amThanks for the nice comment Christine! This is a wonderful site…I’ve never seen it before. So much talent shown here!
Elaine Ray
September 11, 2007 at 2:18 amChristine – I have never even heard of recycling wool sweaters this way, very cool! Thanks for sharing this technique and the eye candy with us.
– Elaine
Leslie
September 11, 2007 at 2:08 pmElaine, the necklace looks great! I didn’t realize there was such a thing as aluminum bead caps. I’ll have to go take a look at my old stuff.
Elaine Ray
September 11, 2007 at 4:00 pmThanks for the compliment. Wish I could tell you more about the bead caps – but I have no idea. Good luck looking through your piles – I bet you find some real treasures there!
– Elaine
BorneoDiva
March 19, 2008 at 5:07 amVery beautiful elaine! you should sell it on ebay!