Sunday, January 24, 2010

Creative rush(es)

Finally, FINALLY, I took some time to play with my vintage jewelry stash. I've never been interested in making jewelry. I've tried it once before and my interest lasted, oh, about two weeks. Part of it was that there is so many choices to make: earrings or a necklace? Pearl or wire? Beads? What color/shape/size? How do I attach everything? It can be a little overwhelming.
Another part is that it can get expensive buying all the findings, pendants, books on beading, etc. And of course, there was the whole patience thing. I'm not a very patient person though I'm striving to be. Working with itsy bitsy pieces and beads that want to go one way when I want them to go another isn't very relaxing.

Re-purposing old stuff though, that's something I'm good at.

So, I decided to try my hand at making recycled pieces of jewelry and wow, did I have fun! In fact, I worked on my two projects all weekend, on and off between diaper changes and book reading and running errands and talking with my hubby. It's sort of addictive. It's very fun. And it's a creative, inexpensive outlet that I can feel good about.

I'm donating part of all the proceeds I make from sales at my Etsy shop to Shared Hope International, an organization working to end sex trafficking around the world.
If you're interested in re-purposing old jewelry into new creations, I'd highly recommend, "Vintage Redoux," which my lovely parents gave me recently for my birthday. Though I'm not good at following directions, I like to look at the pictures and get ideas for my own projects. And there is a "techniques" section at the end that is helpful.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Beautiful work Joy!

Pam

ChicChick said...

Thank you, Pam! It's a lot of fun.