Reworking Vintage Jewelry

I can't believe that it has been five months since I last posted on this blog! I shall try to do better in the future. :o)

I recently purchased two large lots of vintage jewelry components, totaling 48 pounds of components in all. These components are "new old stock" from the people who manufacture these pieces for costume jewelry designers. It's clear that these pieces have sat in a storeroom somewhere for the last 20-30 years. The first lot that I purchased was made up of several large batches of the same type of item, and I spent about four hours sorting those into useable categories.

The second lot was composed of four bags of mixed components: raw brass, plated brass, copper, chains, finished and partially finished pieces, all jumbled together with no rhyme or reason. This lot took about 10 hours to sort and categorize! (It's also the most fun and interesting.)

I sell my own handmade jewelry on Etsy, and so I have been remaking the finished pieces to reflect my own designs. I thought that others might be interested in seeing how old jewelry can be used to create brand new designs.

The first piece I'll write about is my Romantic Charm Necklace: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=34093871

Above is a picture of the original components, followed by two pictures of the finished piece.

As you can see, I removed the star charm from the art deco style hanger and used the hanger for the top piece. To that I added an earring base with an oval bezel and bottom ring. I removed the cameo caboshon from a post earring and reset it in the bezel, then wrapped the earring hook to create the top loop which connects this piece to the main hanger. Finally, I scavenged charms and a teardrop pearl from other pieces to hang from the charm ring.

Of course, I still had to add the chain, clasp, extender chain and back charm to finish the necklace.

Isn't that a fun way to design jewelry? I can't wait to play with my new components more. Too bad I have a day job to go to tomorrow.