Although I do find components for jewelry at bead stores and big chain craft stores, I prefer to take apart existing jewelry and harvesting bits and pieces from them. It’s not that I’m consciously trying to be ‘green’ or anything– even though that is a plus–but more the fact that it can be more thrifty and provide more variety that way. I search the clearance jewelry sections at all types of stores, and garage sales are always a good bet. The best was the time I was doing a morning run through the neighborhood and ran past a garage sale. Some vintage jewelry caught my eye, so I ran home, grabbed some cash, ran back and nabbed the pieces!
So, here are some examples of earrings made with harvested components. Below are two earrings and one necklace I found at different stores:
Right now it’s great because the trend is necklaces with all sorts of different charms, beads, chains etc. These particular pieces weren’t too packed with different types components, but I’ll be ‘vulturizing’ other pieces I have soon…
This first pair or earrings used jump rings and silver discs, and I added some resin mixed with alcohol based dye to add a pop of color.
The next two pieces used silver leaf shapes harvested from a pair of very long, dangly earrings. For the blue pair, I used blue tinted resin and added a copper metallic glass bead.
The other leaf shaped earring has a combo of some amber colored tint in the resin with a tiny bit of metallic powder to add a bit more interest. I added a small silver oval charm that I took from a long necklace.
Another plus: pieces loaded with charms and other components means lots of jump rings of different sizes, and necklaces mean a clasp that can be used later on other bracelets or necklaces. Everything can be reused on something!
