How to Make Jewelry From Pre Made Jewelry

by Kirstin Kestner
(Hazlet, NJ)

Jewelry making on a budget...Find out how to make jewelry from pre made jewelry using discount and craft store finds and findings. Make this easy seed bead jewelry design project in an afternoon!

Midnight Garden Recreation Necklace and Earrings

With the price of jewelry declining and the price of supplies rising, one can easily wonder, “Can’t I just buy the low cost jewelry and use it for parts?” Well, the answer is yes. This project was made using parts from two anklets, four very cheap seed bead necklaces, and a few findings from the craft store. You can see all the elements in the “before” photo. (Note, the photo shows blue beaded anklets but black beaded ones where used in this project.)

As you can see, the pre-made jewelry looks a lot like the strings of beads and elements you see hanging in the craft and jewelry supply stores. So, it’s basically the same as working with strings of things you find in the store. It’s just easier to find big lots of new jewelry at less than $1 apiece than it is to find beads and elements.

For this project, only very basic jewelry making skills were required. Construction of the chain, single bead elements, flowers, and closure required no more skill than being able to open and close a wire loop since the round beads were already wired with loops.

The seed bead section took only basic beading skills. Two 20” strands were beaded, looped though closed rings at the end of each chain, and then each of the two beaded strands were individually tied off and finished. To keep the beaded strands in place black beading thread was used to tie the bundle of strands just below the loops.

As for the earrings, just a few more wire loops to open and close. Then, a quick check to make sure all the wire loops were completely closed.


In the “after” photo you can see the completed necklace and earrings along with the left over supplies that, of course, can be used in other projects.

Materials and tools you’ll need to recreate this project scratch:
Materials:
24 Black acrylic beads – 4mm
Black seed beads—10/0
8 1” sections of dark metal chain
2 Closed metal rings—6mm
8 Metal flowers—1/2”
Black toned metal wire
6 black toned metal pin heads (for the beads dangling from the earring flowers)
1 Metal closure
1 Pair wire earring hooks
Nylon beading thread—3yrds
Tools:
Beading needle
Wire cutter
Chain nose pliers
Round nose pliers

Tips for using existing low-cost jewelry as supplies:

* Keep in mind that the materials will be of a lower grade than what you find at many bead stores. Seed beads, for example, will not be uniform in size. The quality of materials will be similar to the lower priced components and beads that you buy in craft stores.

* Always give it the pull test and check the wires. Very often low priced jewelry will have beautiful elements and beads, but the wrong gauge wire and will easily pull apart. If this is the case you will need to redo all the wirework with the proper gauge wire.

* If you didn’t do it yourself, check it and fix it if you need too. Low-cost new jewelry, both “handmade” and machine made, is mass-produced. There’s no time to make sure every wire loop is closed properly.

* Don’t expect to use just one piece of jewelry to make a new piece. When you use one necklace to make a new necklace, chances are the two will look pretty much the same. More importantly, it limits your creative freedom. Try using a variety of elements from different existing pieces and mixing them together with the beads and findings that you already have.