The latest #craftblogclub challenge has been to upcycle an item, giving something old some love. The challenge said furniture or homeware but I’m not allowed to touch the furniture in here and I don’t really have any homeware of my own. I did consider buying something small, so I trawled the secondhand shops in Heaton and Byker looking for cheap furniture that I could upcycle, but everything was too expensive or too big, so I decided to do jewellery. My mum had an old necklace from M&S which never fitted properly, and one of the chains had come off, and I decided that would be my starting point.
I also had three bracelets which we’d gotten free with a magazine years ago, and as they were all the same length, they were my next order of business. Two of them are rope chains, and the other is a cable link chain. The cable link is a really bright gold, while the other two are a bit darker, but I thought they’d make a nice contrast against each other. I must point out that I never wore any of these myself as gold is just really not my colour.
My next port of call was to try and separate the necklace from its findings – I was particularly keen on using the three ring connectors from either end of the necklace. I took the two chains off the necklace, and then attached the three bracelets using their original jump rings, which were slightly bigger than the ones on the necklace connectors. I don’t have any photos of that bit as it was really fiddly and more than a little frustrating without trying to manage my camera at the same time!
I made sure I attached the rings properly so that the bracelet isn’t twisted at all. It’s a bit difficult to put the bracelet on myself but that’s an inevitable problem with lobster clasp and jump ring fastenings. I managed it though, so here’s the bracelet fastened. I think the middle bright gold cable link chain goes really well with the connectors, which makes for a nice contrast with those darker, and dare I say it warmer, rope chains.
Here’s the finished bracelet, and I’m actually pretty pleased with it. It’s too long for me because I have shockingly skinny wrists, and I don’t wear gold anyway, so I’ve given it to my mum. She might not wear the necklace but at least she can wear this instead!
Caro says
This is amazing!! So clever of you — I wouldn’t have any idea where to start with something like that! Brilliant 🙂
The Things She Makes says
This is such a great idea and even better – a gift! I found myself scouting different necklaces today to try this idea myself – I’ll let you know if I am successful 🙂