Recycle Jewelry to Make Unique Designs
Make One of a Kind items of Jewelry using Vintage Components.
Keep a look out at garage and estate sales for old items of broken jewelry. Often you will find bags of broken and discarded jewelry being sold for pennies. With a bit of imagination these can be given not only a new lease of life, but can also bring your jewelry a unique element.
The chances are that the jewelry you will find at sales will be costume jewelry. Whilst you might be lucky and find a long forgotten antique treasure, it is more likely that what you find will be plate or base metal items. However these pieces whilst having little face value, offer a great way to make some really unusual and highly individual items of jewelry.
When you have got your purchases home, take a look at what you have and how they can be used. A great way to use the components that you have found is to make individual items representing a variety of era’s and styles. A classic silver bracelet can be turned into a funky modern charm bracelet by collecting up earrings, pendants – even key rings, can be broken down to make unusual and unique charms. Just take a look in some of the more off-beat jewelry stores for examples of how this eclectic style is being explored by designers. A good example of a designer combing the new and the old can be seen here.
Materials such as bakelite and celluloid are becoming highly collectible, and therefore are rarer to find - however you may be lucky and come across some early plastic items of jewelry and these can look good combined with silver beads or other components.
Clasps are another useful thing to look for on old jewelry and these can be recycled or ‘repurposed’. For instance, the clasps of old pearl or bead strings can be cleaned up and used on a modern necklace. Often these will be large and glamorous so why not design a neck piece which is worn back to front and make a feature of the clasp. When using an old clasp make sure that it still firmly remains shut so you don’t risk loosing the necklace. If in doubt use a safety chain, this will give added peace of mind as well as ensuring that should the clasp come undone, the item won’t completely fall off.
Recycling beads can be great fun, and an old broken string can present all sorts of possibilities – a few beads to make earrings, or mixed with some other beads to make a new necklace. Perhaps a few beads with large holes could be crocheted into a bracelet or onto a brooch fitting to make something a little different. You may be able to reclaim some fantastic ‘feature beads’ which can be used as a central point in another design.
Although you may buy earrings, take care before using the ear fittings. Whilst they may look gold or silver, they may actually be only base metal and therefore might cause a skin reaction. The same would also apply to any chains or other metal items designed to be worn close to the skin.
Other items may also present exciting opportunities, perhaps clothes with mother of pearl buttons, which can make a highly effective necklace, or a silver buckle can be used as an interesting neck piece. With some imagination and creativity, many unusual and unique items can be designed, and also give some long forgotten items of jewelry a new lease of life.
To read more about making jewelry take a look at our other Suite101 articles, such as our beginners guide to using a wire jig, and a simple project.
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