Reclaiming used jewelry is my favorite way to get supplies so Sarah's blog hop sounded like a great challenge. Although I already have lots of stuff in my stash purchased for about $1, any reason to hunt for unique supplies is relevant to my interests.
Last weekend, my friend and I went to a few shops and booths during a neighborhood festival. She notice some bags of costume jewelry for $2 each and asked if they were something I could use.
I almost said no because I don't normally use vintage plastic beads. However, after a closer look, I snagged one of the bags with interesting patterned beads and closure bars.
I took apart the pink necklace to get to the knot patterned ones (not in this picture because I suck at remembering to take in progress pictures).
The first two patterned beads went into a pair of earrings with more pink beads from this necklace and cream colored ruffle beads from another necklace. My original idea was to use the knotted beads with reclaimed marbled glass beads but my muse wanted to use the gray with the more fuchsia colored pink. I reused bead caps from the necklace and both pairs of earrings use this
headpin tutorial that I have
pinned on my jewelry board. However, my favorite pair use pink swirly beads and bead caps from the challenge necklace with blue-green reclaimed metal. All three pairs still need earring wires as I don't have any in a tone that will mix with aged copper.
The blue semi-triangles above started as a metal seashell like this purple one. These seashells came on from the same thrifted necklace as the chain I sent in Linda's
soup mix. At $7, it was a splurge for me, but I couldn't pass it up as a reason to finally buy some tin snips for re-purposing metal.
Another pair of earrings still in progress use more of the blue seashell. The gold beads came from the pink challenge necklace. I love the way the gold paint has worn on these beads.
Some other earrings in progress include a teardrop hoop of seed beads and reclaimed gear spacers from the necklace with cream colored ruffle beads (another awesome $1 deal my friend found). Another pair uses two more knot patterned beads from the challenge necklace with tin bits from a bead exchange (I think its an Arizona tea can). The pink and robin's egg blue went nicely together.
These clip-on earrings were $1 each. Both pairs will get post backs.
Finally, I got punched pennies. I may have to buy some enamel powder to try on them because how cool would that be?! It was an awesome two days and I got more supplies to reclaim which I will share pictures of later. Bonus, on top of all the jewelry to reconstruct, my friend found my new favorite shirt for just $1.
Nerd P.S. - tl;dr - Take friends thrifting with you who know your skills at re-purposing because they will see things you didn't know you could use. And also find your new favorite shirt.
