Salvaging Broken Jewelry

Sometimes you just end up with a crapton of broken jewelry.

Or maybe that's just me.

Whether you buy it for crafty purposes, someone gives it to you, or you just stockpile things you have that break, it can accumulate!  While I'm certainly not a hoarder in most areas of my life, my craft stockpile can sometimes beg to differ.  I find myself having to clean out and re-organize all of it every 2 months or so just to sort of ferret through and ask "am I *really* going to do this project?" or "is this something I have the time and energy to finish?" so that it doesn't take over...well...everything.

At any rate, in case you are the type of person who also ends up with a lot of broken jewelry or weird odds and ends, then this post is for you!  Maybe you'll have the same pieces here or maybe you'll be able to use this for some sort of inspiration!  :)

Now, I don't have any 'before' photos, but this metal cabochon thing had had the jump ring, bail, or whatever had belonged to it broken off, the stone was loose and had a silver paint on the back, and it was bizarrely wrapped in some sort of odd, iridescent fabric that was all bunched up underneath.  That had to go.

I pried up the prongs, ripped off the fabric and carefully used a razor blade to scrape the silver paint off of the back.  Not all of it, though, and you'll see why.

I wanted to put a photo under the stone before putting it back in, but without all the bunched-up fabric under it, it just didn't sit right, so I used some Loctite to glue some flat beads in there.

Once I had the proper level, I was able to trim the photo I wanted to use around the "stone" and set it into the little bevel...wait...is that even the right damn word?

Anyway...

I put the "stone" back on top, then closed the prongs....You can sort of see here how the silver I left gave it that 'damaged old mirror' look.  It looks better in person...

Now, the aforementioned bail.  It didn't really have one, I just did't know what the proper term for they-glued-it-directly-to-the-chain was.  Still don't.  Either way, I took a small, flat, ugly charm I had lying in my jewelry supplies and used the Loctite to affix it to the back of the whole ordeal.

And now we have a really cool, sort of goth pendant that needs a matching chain!

For that, I used a plain chain and then added some drapes to it using a different style of chain to break up the monotony.

Then, I attached the little dangling parts which are actually those little metal things you're supposed to put around round beads.

I am so full of terminology today I shock myself.

Awful fucking terminology or not, I'm very pleased with how this turned out!  It took me about 20 minutes (not including the glue-drying time, of course) to take this pile of trash and make something pretty and unique!  Score one for repurposing!

<3 WW