#Craftblogclub – Upcycle Challenge

The latest #craftblogclub challenge has been to upcycle an item, giving something old some love. The challenge said furniture or homeware but I’m not allowed to touch the furniture in here and I don’t really have any homeware of my own. I did consider buying something small, so I trawled the secondhand shops in Heaton and Byker looking for cheap furniture that I could upcycle, but everything was too expensive or too big, so I decided to do jewellery. My mum had an old necklace from M&S which never fitted properly, and one of the chains had come off, and I decided that would be my starting point.

I also had three bracelets which we’d gotten free with a magazine years ago, and as they were all the same length, they were my next order of business. Two of them are rope chains, and the other is a cable link chain. The cable link is a really bright gold, while the other two are a bit darker, but I thought they’d make a nice contrast against each other. I must point out that I never wore any of these myself as gold is just really not my colour.

My next port of call was to try and separate the necklace from its findings – I was particularly keen on using the three ring connectors from either end of the necklace. I took the two chains off the necklace, and then attached the three bracelets using their original jump rings, which were slightly bigger than the ones on the necklace connectors. I don’t have any photos of that bit as it was really fiddly and more than a little frustrating without trying to manage my camera at the same time!

I made sure I attached the rings properly so that the bracelet isn’t twisted at all. It’s a bit difficult to put the bracelet on myself but that’s an inevitable problem with lobster clasp and jump ring fastenings. I managed it though, so here’s the bracelet fastened. I think the middle bright gold cable link chain goes really well with the connectors, which makes for a nice contrast with those darker, and dare I say it warmer, rope chains.

Here’s the finished bracelet, and I’m actually pretty pleased with it. It’s too long for me because I have shockingly skinny wrists, and I don’t wear gold anyway, so I’ve given it to my mum. She might not wear the necklace but at least she can wear this instead!