A dear colleague had this stash of crystal beads from her broken jewelry for such a long time in her drawer and was going to discard it. Thank goodness I found out in time and volunteered to help her.
Restyling broken jewelry can be a quite "refreshing" project. Bringing new life to old jewelry opens your mind to new creations, new ideas,new possibilities.... and allow me to create colorful and modern bracelets for her instead of the usual stringing of one color one gemstone bracelets.
They were potato pearls, agate, onyx, rose quartz, hematite and some other pretty beads that I could not verify whether they were glass beads or crystal.
I started with the black pearls and the black beads of hers to make her a dangle bracelet. A fun pearl bracelet with lots of movement. Perfect for a dressed up.
The lovely blue glass beads were paired with greenery twisted oval Czech beads to make a stretch bracelet (which she prefers). I added metallic pink seed beads along with silver and gold Greek ceramic spacers for added color and playful fun.
I am not a fan of elastic bracelet even though they are easy and quick to make. (Sorry to those who loves stretchy bracelets) They tend to break easily as it lacks durability.
Another stretch bracelet of honey brown oval agate beads combined with pale orange cats eyes and milky beige twisted oval glass beads. I brightened it up with the metallic red seed bead and gold Greek ceramic spacers.
Hematite bracelet, which was simply restrung, with metallic teal seed beads. There was not enough hematite rounds so I had to add the teal seed beads to make a fit. I finished it with a oval gunmetal toggle clasp.
This rose quartz bracelet was inspired by the 2016 Pantone color of the year; Rose Quartz and Serenity.
For her pale yellow agate beads (since they were only 4 beads), I added the papaya mix colored millefiori round shape glass beads to complement the pale yellow agate beads. Loved how it turned out - a very fun and cheery bracelet. I finished it off with a brass plated heart toggle with a seahorse and a beaded dangle dangling from it.
There are still some beads from her stash that I have not utilized and I am glad that she understands and allows me to finish them when I can. I have not been well since middle of last year and hopefully now after my surgeries, things would pick up.
Rev..... revving up.....
PS : I am so glad that she has let me revive these beads to something new, modern and easy-to-wear designs that she can wear all over again. It would have been a tragedy if she had tossed them away.
