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Wednesday, November 30, 2022

New Life for Denim Scraps...

 


Well I've gone and followed a rabbit trail now! It seems I'm unable to stop making these denim bead necklaces. They are so simple, colorful, and easy to make that a new necklace invents itself in my mind while I'm working on the current one. And then it has to happen of course. Plus these necklaces are just so pretty. Making them long enough to go over the head means no need for clasps or findings, which really does simplify things. I just tie off the ends of the cord. And those broken pieces of jewelry and beads I've collected over the years? They wind up in these necklaces. It's quite satisfying to use up bits and pieces and upcycle materials.




This necklace is titled "Pure Water" and was made for our granddaughter. She works for a water resources company and when I found this old earring in the "parts department", it looked like a raindrop of fresh clean water.




A visit to the bead box supplied the spacer beads for all of these necklaces.  All that's needed to assemble the necklace is some cording to string the beads, chunky beads for spacers, a focal piece for the pendant, and a jewelry bail with glue to hang the pendant. Fun, fun! Would you wear a necklace like these? Do you have a favorite among these three?



The core bead begins with a strip of denim wrapped and glued around a recycled drinking straw and trimmed at the ends so the straw remains inside for stability. Then a wrapping of various colors of embroidery floss is added. And finally there's an outer wrap of metallic sewing thread or bead wire with seed beads added. Make a bunch and soon you'll have a necklace worth. 


You can see that I'm not going to be able to stop because I found so many candidates for pendants. Of course each one will require a necklace to showcase it. The bottom piece was given to me by a crafting friend. It's made from seashells and pearls. It's so delicate and lovely. I like doing fiddly things, but shell craft may be too fiddly for even me! But the results are wonderful and I'm happy to have this piece.  I'm not stopping at denim, either. Upcoming posts will show some other fabric bead styles that are just as easy to make. So, other craft projects are set aside for now while I use up these bits and pieces. That could take awhile!