Sep 30, 20193 min read

I created a Jewellery Set out of a worn out Bead Necklace! - Upcycle Project.

A little quick BACK STORY;

My Nan was going on holiday to Texas and I'd promised her I would make her a new jewellery set, (necklace, bracelet & earrings) to take with her to wear and glam up her outfits.

She already had a few pieces of jewellery I had made for her before, but I felt she needed something new, and some of the ones she had were starting to look a bit worn out.

I told my Nan I would make the set for her in May, with her holiday being in July. ✈🌞

I had LOADS of time 🕘. But unfortunately, I'm also a mother with two very wild boys, one of which is currently going through his terrible two's phase, whilst trying to run and produce stock for Jah-Jah's Closet! So the two months I had suddenly turned into THREE DAYS! 🤦🏾‍♀️🙄😫 But of course, I couldn't let her go without new jewellery. 🤷🏾‍♀️

I had thought of and was initially planning on throwing together something simple for her (so it could match with multiple outfits), when I found this bead necklace I was given a few years ago. 👀🕵🏾‍♀️👌🏾.

I had somewhat worn the life out of it, and the elastic was over stretched so it wasn't exactly wearable. I had kept it though, with the idea/intention of just re-making it with new elastic. But seeing it in that moment, the idea came to me. Why not just use the beads from the necklace to make the jewellery set for my Nan!? Easy and simple, it made sense. 👍🏾👩🏾‍🎨

As the necklace already had a really pretty pattern/design, I wouldn't spend time figuring out how I would like to design the jewellery set. (e.g what type beads I should use, what colour, or what beads would match and go together).

The necklace was also quite long in length, I'm not actually sure how many inches, but it helped as I would have more than enough beads to use.

To take the necklace apart, I used my wire cutters to snip the elastic, and carefully laid it out on my bead board making sure I didn't lose the pattern/order the beads were in. (see image left for example).

Side note: Keeping the beads in order on the bead board when removing the elastic made the process a lot easier as well because, I could follow the pattern completely, only replacing the pearl beads with my own Imitation Pearl beads.

The reason I replaced the Pearl beads, was because the colour had practically rubbed off the bead or it had turned a weird orangey like colour. (see image below).

This shows the difference between the original beads (right) to the new Imitation Pearl beads (left) I replaced them with.

Necklace, Bracelet and Earrings preview.

This is what each piece of the set looked like prior to completion.

Fun Fact 1: For the bracelet, to keep to the bead pattern I had to make it 7.5" in size rather than the 8" I wanted because it was impossible to stick to the exact bead pattern and make it continuously flow, without going past 8", so I opted to sticking with the 7.5".

Fun Fact 2: I couldn't decide at the time i took the photos, which pattern I wanted for the earrings, and as you can see in the completed images, I chose neither. 🤷🏾‍♀️😆

The completed Jewellery Set alongside the original necklace.

Unfortunately I didn't take a photo of the necklace before starting to dismantle it, but I did manage to find a photo of me wearing it, so you can see its style, length, etc.