Red and Crystal

The centerpiece of this pendant was refurbished from an antique brooch I have had for many years. I bought it to wear on jacket lapels and always enjoyed it. After leaving it in a drawer for quite awhile, I decide to bring it back to life in a newly-styled necklace pendant. The necklace is below.


The beads used in this necklace and pendant are Swarovski crystal beads and gold beads. I have no idea of the center stone in the former brooch. I am quite sure it is a rhinestone, but may also be a lab-created ruby. I do know that the filigree surrounding the stone is well-designed and nice metal.

I often have wondered about who these belonged to and how they wound up for sale in an antique store on Whiskey Road in Prescott, AZ where I purchased a few of these pieces.

Blue and Silver

The necklace at the left is made from silver beads and blue jewelry wire. The blue coiled "beads" were hand coiled by yours truly over a two-day period. The term "handcrafted" truly comes into play with this one!

For a close-up of the centerpiece pendant detail, please see the macro shot to the right.

C Earrings

This grouping of earrings includes more detail, higher-priced beads and Swarovski crystals beads. Most of these will match any color you are wearing and would look just as good with denim as dressy.

B Earrings

This grouping of earrings has a bit more wire wrap detail and/or some semiprecious stones included. The purple ones have amethyst stones, the turquoise have (what else?) turquoise stones.

A Earrings

These are some of the fun earrings I have made. They are bright and bouncy, some on studs and most on French wires.

Concho Belt Reborn

This is a necklace and earring set I made for myself. The silver pieces that are in the pendant and earrings were reclaimed from a concho belt that had been in my late mother-in-law's family. I believe it was her belt but am unsure of that, it could have been her mother's. I am taking it apart link-by-link and cleaning it up and making jewelry for myself from it. I think Mom would have been very happy to see how this is being used!

Most people (including me!) have drawers with old costume and good jewelry that has not been worn for quite awhile. I am taking a lot of this apart and refurbishing it, designing it into more modern and fashionable pieces. This is great fun and so far has been profitable. I will not be selling any of the jewelry I make with the silver pieces shown here since they are from old family pieces. I cherish things that were treasured by prior generations.

First Creations

This is a close-up photo to show detail of some of the pieces shown below. The copper bracelet and pendant on the omega were sold during the recent ArtChix sale. I debated about keeping the bracelet for myself but decided to put it out for the display and gauge the reaction to something like this. It garnered enough admiration and did sell, so I think I will have to start coiling more wire soon!