Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Repurposed Vintage Earrings- Before and After

I love repurposing vintage jewelry.  Seriously, everything about it.  I love combing estate sales for the vintage jewelry, whether it's in great condition or in need of repair and/or TLC.  I love playing with all the different pieces I've collected over the years and then figuring out how to breathe a little new life into them, if necessary.  I also love buying beads, and other jewelry components.  I go to most of the bead shows that come to town, but what I love more than anything is going to bead shops when I'm traveling.  That way, I always have special little mementos from each trip I take. So, because I spend a lot of time gathering trinkets and supplies, I feel like I'm able to create some really special, one-of-a-kind keepsakes.

Sometimes, when I'm making something- or rather, tearing stuff apart and then putting it back together in a new way, I get so excited that I have to either show Lucy and Ricky...
"Unless you will let us play with it, or eat it, we don't really care about your jewelry. Sorry, not sorry..." - Lucy and Ricky Ricardo
...or I interrupt Fermin's work day by going into his home office to show him my new creation.  But he's probably even slightly less interested in jewelry than my dogs are.

But who cares?  I'm still excited.  Which is why I love posting these Before and After blog posts.  So thank you so much for indulging me!

Today's "Before and After" is one of my favorites in a long while.  I am absolutely in LOVE with these earrings.  But I was only lukewarm about them in their original form.  They were sweet, but they were clip earrings, and there was nothing ultra special about them.
1950s Gold Leaf Clip Earrings (BEFORE)
After sifting through beads for hours to find just the right ones for this project, I decided on these vintage cloisonne beads I found while I was in Hawaii, on the Big Island, a couple of years ago.  I bought 5 beads that were similar that day, but I haven't used any of them until today.  Sometimes, I can love something so much, that I end up hoarding it.  But I know that's not what was meant for these beads!  They weren't meant to sit in a drawer.  They were meant for much bigger and better things.  They want to see the world, and I know the world wants to see them.  So today, they got paired up with these earrings... And I think it's a magical combination.
1950s Repurposed Earrings with Vintage Cloisonne Beads



1 comment:

Valerie said...

These are so cute! I love the flowered beads--very nice!