Something New From Something Old: A Necklace Re-Designed

As we slowly thaw out from our big snow last week, I have continued to work on some jewelry designs.  I am working on some new ones, but as I looked through some of my older designs, I found some that really needed to be re-designed or re-beaded.

So I set out to to make some new jewelry from old.  Here is one such piece  that I found:

I liked the focal pendant but not the beaded necklace part.  And the more I looked at the pendant, it was pretty but it really needed "something else."  But what?  

So I rummaged through my supplies and found this stamping from VintageJewelrySupplies.com - one of my favorite suppliers.  In fact, I used components from Vintage Jewelry Supplies for most of the original design as well.  The pink fire opal, the clear teardrop, bead cap and setting are all from there.

Now for the fun part.  First I disassembled the pendant from the necklace and removed the beaded teardrop dangle leaving just the pendant to work with.  Then I layered the pendant onto the stamping pictured above using E-6000 glue.  E-6000 glue is wonderful - it is absolutely permanent.  I placed the pendant into the dapped center of the stamping, let it sit for 24 hours, holding it place by taping it to my work table - this holds it firmly in place while the glue sets.

The next day I re-beaded the pendant into a necklace.  I liked the teardrop and bead cap, so used it again as a dangle.  You might notice the stamping has a loop at the top - that is where I placed the dangle. So I actually used the "top" of the stamping as the bottom.  

Then I used jump rings to attach some rhinestone settings and chain.  I decided to make a less busy necklace for this pendant than the original design.  Here is what I came up with:

Close-up View of Pendant

That's all for now.  As always, thanks so much for visiting!

Irene

Snow Days

The last two days have been "snow days" here in South Carolina.  It is very unusual that we get as much snow and ice as we have had - probably the worst in 15 or 20 years.  Now I know that you all in the North would laugh at how incapacitated we become with a bit of snow here, but remember it happens so infrequently here that we don't have the resources for clearing the roads, etc.

Of course it's always exciting when it happens, and it is quite beautiful, but all in all, I'm ready for spring!  Still, I thought I would share a bit of what things have been like here.

My house on day 1 of the snow

Day 2 - more snow!

My driveway - you can't really see it because of snow!

The pasture in front of our house

My hubby - he loves snow!

Me bundled up - I'd rather be in the tropics!

"The Girls" - Maggie and Jenny - they're happy as long as they're with us!

Of course, I did get a few things accomplished inside as well - like working on what else - my jewelry.  And I re-photographed some old designs to give them a fresh look in my Etsy shop.  I'm sharing a couple of them below.

I call these earrings All My Heart Earrings.  They feature antique brass filigree hearts and clear pear shaped beads which I wire-wrapped onto the hearts.

These next earrings are true Deco Bling!  Beaded with aqua blue and hot pink crystals and antique brass filigree.  The second photo with the vintage woman image is from thegraphicsfairy.com - I love her images since they fit so well with my vintage style jewelry!

Both of these earrings can be found in my Etsy shop.  

That's all for now ... hope everyone has a Happy Valentine's Day!

Irene

More Stick Pins and Hat Pins

Last week I posted a tutorial on making stick pins.  You can view the tutorial here.

This week I have made a few more stickpins to post in my Etsy shop.  And I thought I would share them here. The stick pins pictured at left are a combination of two sets I combined together - my "Victorian Red" and "Vintage Rose" sets.  I beaded these sets to compliment each other in shades of deep red and soft rosy antique pink.

My Victorian Red set pictured below has spectacular deep red and antique rose pink beads which I embellished with antique silver bead caps.  I think the red and pink colors are so pretty together!

Victorian Red Stick Pins

The Vintage Rose pins below are beaded with the same antique rose pink beads as are in the Victorian Red set.

Vintage Rose Stick Pin Set

And I made some more of the heart pins like in my tutorial last week:

Valentine Red Heart Stick Pin

One thing I did differently than in my tutorial last week is I used a heavier 18 gauge wire.  In my tutorial I used 20 gauge but found it did not hold up as well as I liked when actually sticking it through material.  The 18 gauge wire has just enough sturdiness but is not too thick to thread the beads onto.

You can find these stick pins now in my Etsy shop.

As always, thanks so much for stopping by!

Irene