by Maria Hammel
Have you ever heard the phrase “Someone’s trash is someone else’s treasure”? This phrase assumes the “trash” moves from one person to another who will recycle the item into his or her personal “treasure”. However, you can make your own treasure from your own trash. By trash, I don’t mean go through your kitchen trash can and look for something interesting to use in a craft project. Yuk! What I mean is that you can use broken jewelry to make new pieces of jewelry.
Do you remember the gold necklaces with the gold beads? You can have a necklace with one size of beads, or you can vary the size to add some texture to the necklace. One idea to turn your “trash” to “treasure” is to use that old gold beaded necklace to make a new pair of earrings. You don’t need to find someone to sell gold jewelry to you to help you complete the project. Instead, you can use what you already have to create a unique piece of jewelry. There are tons of things you can make with the viable pieces from the necklace. I’m going to walk you through turning a pair of your plain gold hoops into something a little more special.
Your first step to the project is to take a look at the beads from your necklace. Are then dented, or has the color changed in any way? You also need to make sure the beads have holes large enough to be able to fit over the hoop earrings you want to use for this project. Once you determine you have beads that can be repurposed into earrings, you need to decide on your design.
Do you want a large pair of beaded hoops, or do you want something small? To save a little on this project, I suggest you use any pair of hoops you already have to make these new earrings. And remember, just because the beads you are using are gold, you don’t need to limit yourself to gold hoops. The gold beads can be a great accent to silver hoops, or hoops of any color.
Once you have gathered your beads and the pair of hoops you want to use, your job is pretty simple. All you have to do is add the beads to the hoops in the order you want them to be. You can add beads all the way around the hoop, or you can add one or two beads to accent the look of your hoops.
The nice thing about this project is that you can easily change the way the earrings look. Because you haven’t used glue or any other items to affix the beads permanently, you can add or remove beads as you please according to your mood. If you are in a sassy mood, you can add beads all the way around the hoops. If you are dressing conservatively for work, you can add one or two beads to add a little interest to the earrings, but not make them too bold for work.
So next time you consider throwing away your old jewelry, think about what you can easily do to reuse that jewelry. What you think is your trash, can actually be your treasure. Enjoy finding your treasure!
