Rejuvenating My Jewels

Dreaming of Spring, and inspired by Amy Hanna's book called

Rejuvenated Jewels: New Designs for Vintage Treasures

I created this necklace last night. The purple and green heart pendant was sent to me by the perfectly talented Mary Harding. It just screams Spring!! And so am I, these days. It was hard to wake up yesterday to see snow in the air. After weeks of no snow, I was disappointed and a bit sad.

I think that this is a wonderful example of executing a similar design but adding a bit of my own twist. Asymmetrical design incorporating wire wrapped beads and chain up one side, and a chunkier beaded strand up the other side. Instead of three way connectors, I used a wire wrapped brass button. The design that I was inspired by, had this same ring technique in the front- instead of a large vintage ring, I used a small handmade lampwork ring from Beads of Passion.

The design in the book incorporated large faceted wire-wrapped stones up one side, and instead I used beading wire and strung Czech glass beads, bronze color seed beads, and small coins of golden pyrite. And of course, instead of a typical clasp, I created my own using a large mother -of-pearl button.

This necklace was a bit time consuming. But I did manage to put together a pair of earrings too.

They incorporate little brass buttons and faceted Amethyst briolettes that I recently got in a trade with Kristin Huston. Check out Kristin's shop and blog! She's super cool. She sent me a goodie bag Full of fantabulousness. Yes, that's a made up word but it's the one that accurately describes the beads she sent!
Trading bead stashes is a great way to clean out your stock of stuff you don't use, and sending on to someone that looks at those beads in a totally different and new way.