I’ve Been Busy…Making Necklaces

I know I haven’t posted much lately, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been busy.  Mostly, I had to make it through the holidays, and then I got sick for what feels like months.  Seriously, won’t this stuff ever go away?  Anyhoo, in between all of that, I’ve been working on various jewelry projects, which I’ll go over in this post.

I went to Florida in November with some girlies, and we all brought back a lot of shells. I collected a white shell from each of them, and make three necklaces and one rearview mirror dangle.  These white shells were perfect because they each already had a hole at the top, so I didn’t have to drill them. It was fun to see what I could create, and now we’ll always have a special memento from that trip.  I have to say I had the most fun with the mirror dangle, because I could add as much as I wanted to the piece.  Also, the cork was from a bottle of wine we opened on the trip.  How fun is that?

I also found an idea for ribbon necklaces on Pinterest. I’ve had two necklaces from my grandmother that have been sitting in my jewelry box forever. One was a long strand of white beads, and the other was a double strand of crystals. For the white beads, I folded the strand in half. 

I then measured how much ribbon I would need, cut it, and tied it together at one end. Then, I made a slip knot and combined the ribbon with one end of the white beads. For the other side, I just tied the ribbon around the beads.  To cover the knot on that side, I attached a bow made out of the same ribbon, and added a lapel pin that had also been my grandmothers.

I did the same thing for the crystals, although I didn’t have another pin to add to one of the sides. Here are how they turned out. I like how this ribbon transforms the pieces into something a bit more modern, or trendy, and I feel comfortable wearing these with a dress or a high collared shirt. They aren’t just sitting in my jewelry box anymore.

And the last thing I have done, jewelry wise, was to create initial charm necklaces for all the ladies in my family as a Christmas gift.  I had bought the initial charms at a craft fair in October, and while they were cute just by themselves, I felt it needed something more.  One day, I was at Michael’s, and they had some birthstone charms, one for each month, in the jewelry section.  These were great, because they came with lobster claw clasps already included.  I figured up who had birthdays in each month, and bought two packages, plus some ball chain.

I then added the initials to the lobster claw clasps. I liked this, because if they want to just wear the initial one day, without the birthstone, they can definitely just take it off.  It’s a easy way to be able to switch it up a bit.

I measured the appropriate length of chain for each person, and cut it with a pair of pliers. 

And then hung the pendants on the chain.  Easy peasy.  Here is the finished result for one. Also, I like that they can add any additional charms, if they want.

Thanks for looking!

Sarah

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