Upcycling

I'm a bit of a hippy at heart, and have a deep-rooted love of composting, recycling and reusing things. I hate to throw things away that still have life in them.

The other day I decided to go through my overflowing jewellery box and clear out all the old bits and pieces that I never wear any longer, and which are just gathering dust. I had quite a pile by the end of it, and had streamlined my jewellery into just a few key pieces. I must be getting old.

Amongst my discard pile, I had several necklaces with beads, shells, and other dangly things on them. I've recently discovered how to make my own simple earrings, and might branch out into bracelets and necklaces too, so with this in mind, I set to work with my pliers and removed as many beads and dangly things from the chains as I could. I accumulated a (reused, previously houmous) pot of various beads that I could reconstruct at some point into something I might wear.

Here are two of my upcycled creations - two pairs of earrings. I use silver plate, because my ears are sensitive to cheap metals, but I can't afford sterling silver. Life is hard.

My craftsmanship is a little rough around the edges, but I'm getting better. I'm rather pleased with these two pairs. I have plenty more materials from the old jewellery to create some more pieces.

I'm considering selling on Etsy or similar, but I'm not sure how successful I'd be.