Budget Beading

At the Grace Village Swap Shop a few weeks back, I picked up a beaded necklace and two beaded bracelets. One of the bracelets was a hodgepodge of beads as though somebody took all of their leftover beads in the pink family and strung them on an elastic band. The necklace was mostly a coarse silver solid chain with a section of beads just in the center part of the neckline.

It has been almost a decade since I did any beading. I never took formal lessons; a lady in my church in Dallas who did beading held a few sessions after Bible study to share where to buy supplies and show us some of her jewelry. I looked at pictures in books to see how to do some of the finishing (clasps, ear posts, etc.) A few of us tried beading. I found the selection and stringing of the beads fun, but I never became proficient at the finishing. My loops for the earrings are always crooked, and I have had a few bracelets and necklaces fall apart because the crimp beads or knotting didn't hold.

I do still have the basic equipment though, and I decided to take the Swap Shop jewelry and rework the beads more to my liking. I had leftover beads and findings (clasps, ear wires, earring posts and clutches, etc.) to incorporate in the pieces. I should have taken photos of the original pieces but too late now.

I have the roll pliers, a bead crimper, and a wire cutter. There are other types of pliers, but I didn't invest much money into this hobby. One strings beads on a fine wire or braided cording to make necklaces. I have tried both, but all I had on hand was the wire.

A beading tray allows one to lay out the beads and rearrange them before stringing. The items lying in the tray are head pins and eye pins. The head pins are the most common way to make earrings.

I had these items in this box left from my previous beading experiences, except for the lower left corner which are the beads I took from the jewelry but didn't use.

Because the necklace had a small number of beads, I needed to add something in place of the chain. I cut off the chain, which was not links but solid metal, in effect turning it into junk.

Here is the new choker necklace and earrings I made.

I added some black cone beads and metal spacer beads in place of the metal chain. Some of the light pink beads were originally on one of the bracelets.

I liked these beads that have "flowers" inside. I used some posts I had bought on sale years ago but never used. Not sure they are the best match to the beads, but they were what I had. If I change my mind I can later put these beads on ear wires and use the posts in some other way. That is the beauty of beading; you can reuse and redo things. Have you done any beading?