Monday, November 26, 2012

Jewelry Workshop

Over the last few weeks, I've noticed a strange accumulation in my apartment. If you've been visiting my little corner of the internet, you might have noticed that I've been making more and more jewelry as this year has gone on. One little problem with the homemade jewelry is that it's less durable than what you might buy at a shop. The good news is that it's not hard to repair!

 The storm cloud pearl necklace separated from its clasp. Unfortunately, this happened while I was at work, but at least the beads were totally contained on the strand.

. I grabbed my pliers and booked it back up. Good as new!

 You might also remember that I made this very simple necklace with the single charm, engraved with the word "Believe." I wanted it to be on an especially fine chain. I was able to make a necklace that was really cute, but the thin chain was quite difficult to work with, even though it looked just right.The clasp fell off, I think because the hardware was too big for the links in the chain.

I made several attempts to get the hardware back on the chain, but ultimately, I think it was just too fine. I had some larger chain in my stash and ultimately realized it would be best to adjust my expectations and use it. It's great!

While I had all my tools out, I decided to work on a couple of other simple projects where I added a charm to a chain!
 I found this cute little C charm at the Bead Monkey on a recent visit. I decided to add a couple of beads to give it a little more depth. I'm a little worried they're going to block the letter, but I thought I would give it a try.

I found this large rhinestone pave pendant at JoAnn as part of the Tori Spelling collection - yikes. I guess they recommend incorporating it with her other pieces to create a huge, loud necklace which just isn't really my style. But, given how much I like this pendant, I decided it was worth it to string it on a plain chain and just wear it by itself. I like it!

Though I procrastinated on making these repairs, I was sure proud when I stood up from the table: four "new" necklaces to put into rotation!

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