This shall be a mere blip! of a post - just a quick mention of a sneaky little idea. It's something super obvious, but I had a nice example on hand so I thought, what the heck, maybe it will be fresh for a few of you.
A nice gal of my acquaintance had a broken necklace of beautiful garnets, plus a cool Star of David that matched.
She asked me to restring the beads with the pendant included. Instead of recreating the solid strand, I replaced every 10th garnet with a pretty filigree bead. I thought the antique silver finish was a nice complement to the pendant.
Finished:
Now for the sneaky part! Because of the extra beads, I had six garnets left over...
And that's how I managed to finagle a matching pair of earrings.
And that's how I managed to finagle a matching pair of earrings.
This is a great way to be frugal with a short strand of expensive stones, or stretch out some beloved beads from a family necklace with sentimental value.
If you don't want to tackle a restringing project yourself, any jewelry repair service will do it for you. And they'll make the earrings to match. Just buy a few complementary beads, take them to the shop and ask nicely!
If you don't want to tackle a restringing project yourself, any jewelry repair service will do it for you. And they'll make the earrings to match. Just buy a few complementary beads, take them to the shop and ask nicely!
Blip!
How come everything you do looks so... expensive?
ReplyDeleteIt's beautfiul! And even if it seems super obvious, it is this little touch which makes things different (for me at least ^^). Now I want one like this too!
ReplyDeleteI think what you created from the "broken" necklace looks much more elegant. Great job. I just found your blog and I am really enjoying your creations!!! Anne in NC
ReplyDeleteDo you have a store? You should. You are so creative.
ReplyDeleteThis was my string of garnet beads that was given to me more than 20 years ago by a graduate student friend from Nepal. I really enjoyed wearing it as a casual necklace and I was so bummed when it broke. Lucky I found out about Michelle. She not only made it wearable again, but also made it much more elegant. Plus, now I have cute earrings that I can wear with the necklace or more casually with jeans. Thanks, Michelle!
ReplyDelete