More Choices

Everyone likes to have choices, especially when it comes to your jewelry dollar.  Today, while having my second cup of coffee, I came up with an idea that I would like to share with you for FREE.  Many of my readers know that I am an estate jeweler as well as a rabid bead-er.  I am obsessed with beautiful estate and antique finds with brooches being at the top of my list.  I have attempted to utilize my brooch collection in a number of ways with beads, but have often been frustrated by how the pin attaches to the beads; often way too many beads and not enough pin.  I have also purchased adapters in the past to make my brooches into pendants, but often times the brooch pins are soldered on in a way that makes them a little top heavy or what I like to call "tippy." [Good to be tippy, not to wear tippy] Neither of these are good looks.  So today, I thought why couldn't a person put on two lobster claw clasps or closures of choice?  I originally saw this done in a watch line that had beaded bracelets and then interchangeable watches.  I have never seen this done with larger scale beaded items.  I have seen magnetic closures that are interchangeable, but can't be used on estate jewelry.  As with most jewelry, many ideas have been implemented in the past.  Just because I haven't seen it yet, doesn't mean it doesn't exist.  However, I think that this idea has a lot of fabulous implications in my own design line, as well as ways of stretching the almighty jewelry dollar.  Please take a moment to check this out.

This is a lovely strand of beads that I strung this morning.  It is a basically neutral, Autumn friendly color palette that could be worn with many fashion choices.

These are the two lobster claw clasps I chose.  Here you can see that when used alone, they perform the same function as a closure.

Here I have added just a 2" chain to give me a little extra length if I need it.  Many times, these will be strung or soldered on a necklace for convenience.  Now on many noble metal chains there will be "o" rings soldered at sixteen, eighteen, and twenty inches.  This is a great feature if you have bought your chain or necklace that way.  However, if you have a bench jeweler solder on "o" rings, you will pay a significant amount of moolah.  I don't think this is a great value for a casual, once-in-a-while beaded necklace.  The other idea here, is that any costume chain may be used to create this length.  A client could keep one seven inch rolo chain [bracelet length] in several metal choices in his or her jewelry box, to increase the size of a necklace at any given time.

In this photo, I have added a brooch.  Notice that the lobster claws secure to both sides of the brooch pin keeping it centered.  This also works when the brooch is set as a pendant in the middle of the wearer's neck.

Snazzy, focal addition to these lovely beads. Here are some other choices:

 How about this one?

This is a lot of variety for one simple necklace.  Think about this concept applied to a beautiful pearl strand. [No longer Granny's pearl necklace.]  Please contact me if you have any beaded necklaces you would like changed.  Happy Beading.