recycled hearts lead to yet another undertaking

I found this necklace at a yard sale

 and though i liked the mother of pearl hearts and the length, it was a hot dang mess. What is with all the different types of chain and what in the world is going on with this shmanky heart?

Yikes!

But with a 75 cent price tag, how could i resist?

I took apart each section and realized that not only were the chain sections different types of chain, they were each a different length. Who made this abomination? It was obviously manufactured, not handmade.

I fiddled with lengths, added some pearls, AB beads and gold circles from other broken pieces and in 45 minutes i had a brand new necklace and bracelet set,

plus 3 extra hears to be used at a later date.
Every time i wear this set i get comments and questions about it; i think it might be my favorite reimagined piece ever.
In fact, it was this very project that inspired me to try to make an entire line of recycled jewelry for my 40 While I'm 40 list. We all know that i am better with projects if there is a concrete deadline and if i publicly announce it so that there is some sort of accountability.
So here we go:
I will be a vendor at the annual jewelry show for charity the first weekend of February at Objects Found. Mark your calendars because i intend to have necklaces, bracelets, pins and rings all made from vintage pieces and found objects at bargain prices.

And while i'm branching out of my comfort-zone here, i will be linking this post to the Thrifty Thursdays at Quilted Cupcake (once Jean -the most talented person i've ever met- has her post up today) and this will be the first time i've participated in a blog linking event.

I am taking this week's quote to heart.

going out on a jewelry limb

This past week has involved a lot of new jewelry choices for me, including making some of my own from scratch.
First up was a beading project.
I bought a plain white V-neck t-shirt (which i guess is technically a v-shirt, but that sounds ridiculous) at Goodwill (who can beat less than 5 bucks for a shirt?) and thought it would pair nicely with my dark navy jeans, if only i had a large navy pin to dress it up and add some interest.
I had some navy felt almost the exact color of the jeans so i cut out a big wonky heart and added a filigree doodad. I wanted more texture and more movement so I grabbed some metallic seed beads. I can't even explain why i picked up a beading needle since we all know that needlecraft is not one of my stronger skills, but i'm pretty happy with the result and will try that outfit out tomorrow.
After the beading went okay I wanted to sew some more.
That's how it is with me; i'm not very good at needlecraft, but once i create anything that isn't a complete disaster i like to push my luck.
I own a cream, short-sleeved sweater.
It is the most boring piece of clothing ever.
Why do cream colored, short-sleeved sweaters even exist?
Why, for the love of Pete, do i own one? I remember that it was bought for a specific purpose, but have no idea what that was anymore. Somehow it manages to survive the seasonal closet purges. It is just so... blah...
Last time i almost got rid of it I thought that i would keep it to experiment with some crazy vintage trims. I thought, This could be cute with lace roses and beads on it.

I grabbed some antique lace from the craft dresser that i had salvaged from Douglas' mom's house [wait a tic - i think the lace actually came from the tablecloth i made this fort out of the afternoon i had a bit of a breakdown], washed about 80 years of dust out of it, hand dyed one piece a dirty pink and sewed three flowerettes.
I then added vintage buttons from my grandma's button jars and beads and chains from the ugliest 50s necklace i have ever seen. I decided to make them into a pin instead of attaching them directly to the sweater so that they won't go through the washing machine.
That sounds so neat and easy in that sentence; it wasn't. You can tell how good someone is at needlecraft by looking at the back of their pieces. Mine looks like a thready Armageddon, but i got the job done.
It is so large that i felt like i need something small on the other side to balance the outfit, so i whipped up a single flowerette and attached it to a hairclip. I tried it over a classic French twist and was relatively pleased with the effect of the antique lace against my brown hair, though i don't like that you can see the very bottom of the hair clip. But i gotta just get over that, right?
At this point it was like 2am and i wasn't a bit sleepy so as i cleaned up the carnage of my workspace i decided that the remains of the incredibly ugly necklace could somehow be torn apart and rearranged into a bracelet.
I had to scavenge a triple clasp from another bracelet, but i am really pleased with the result. Those beads are glass so it is quite heavy, but i like the way it moves on my wrist.
Here's the whole ensemble with the cream sweater:
In a perfect world i would wear this with charcoal slacks pinstriped with a micro pink stripe and grey heels. However, since i don't own those pants or those shoes, i will try it with brown pants and matching brown boots.
This whole jewelry thing this week started because last Friday i stopped by Objects Found and got 3 pins (plus a vintage monkey shot glass and a Vaseline glass pedestal creamer, but that's beside the point).
The next day I went on an excursion to the Goodwill SuperStore in my old neighborhood and did pretty well, finding 2 tank tops, 3 shirts, a light jacket, a sweater set and 2 more pins.
Today i was excited to show off some of my awesome finds so i clustered three vintage metal and enamel flowers together, kinda like the lace flowers i made on one of the new-to-me shirts:
several people at work commented on the arrangement and one person thought that maybe it was actually one big pin.
Each flower was only $3.
Man, i loves me some accessories.

This post is linked to the Thrifty Thursday party at Quilted Cupcake (button in sidebar)