Custom Jewelry Design

By

Angela Kelsheimer

Wednesday, October 2, 2013



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.

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