Made myself a little something ...

Having seen a very sweet Tiny Bat Necklace (by Giles and Brother for Kabiri) in this month's Elle,



I of course wanted one for myself. So, combining a couple of old necklaces and a bat charm,





I made my own version:

Repurposeful Crafts

As a varied artist and designer/maker, I like to work in a variety of media. Therefore, reclaimed materials are an important part of what I do, as I take inspiration from what I find.

I love using reclaimed materials in my work. The idea of giving new life to an old, unwanted piece of jewellery intrigues me. I take the bus up to Stourbridge and scour the charity shops for interesting old jewellery to repurpose into new.



These second-hand pieces have their own unique qualities, which bring something different to a new creation. The style that these old pieces of jewellery already have can inspire the style of new piece. For example, the original look of the second-hand beaded chain in these necklaces inspired the forms that the finished pieces eventually took:



My love of salvage means that you can expect to find reused chain, beads, and other found materials in many of my items (search "repurposed" in my shop for a few of those).

As well as salvaging jewellery for its aesthetic qualities, I am also interested in reusing materials for environmental reasons. I believe that reusing is the best form of recycling, as it is the best way to reduce waste. I feel that it is important to protect the environment by reusing and recycling wherever I can. The reusing of materials is something that I am committed to, not only in my work but also at home. Old sauce jars become containers for paintbrushes, old cereal boxes are cut up to become magazine files, old fruit containers become containers for craft supplies, the list goes on. I think the old adage of "Waste not, want not" is a great one to follow.



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Posting the above in a couple of other blogs on Sunday made me want to do a bit of thrift shopping. So yesterday I popped into Stourbridge and bought a few things from the charity shops:





Earlier today I finished a necklace, which started life as the above bracelet. I took the bracelet apart, then put it together as one long chain:



I then added a beaded heart and vintage Lucite charms, and created this piece:



To hang from the thrifted steel chain, I created a beaded heart pendant from steel wire and emerald green glass beads. This heart measures 6cm (just under 2.5") high and is 5cm (2") high. The whole necklace measures 56cm (22") long, although it can be as short as you like, as the lobster clasp can be fastened through any of the chain's links. Find it for sale here.

Repurposeful Jewellery

I love using reclaimed materials in my work. I take the bus up to Stourbridge and scour the second-hand shops for old jewellery to repurpose into new.



You can therefore expect to find reused chain, beads, and other found materials in many of my items. Search repurposed in my Etsy shop for a few of those, for example:

Well that was short and sweet ...

That had to be the shortest unemployment in the history of me. Acme let me go on the first of this month, and I've been offered a job at New Look today :D So I start on Saturday.

In other news, I've done a new design:



I've named it Repurposeful Suncatcher, because almost everything in it has been re-purposed. It measures just over a foot long, and consists of gems and beads hanging from, and held together by, chain and twisted steel wire. The blue glass beads and steel wire are new, but the other components are not. The purple plastic beads were originally part of a bracelet, and the chain and faceted plastic gems were re-purposed from this belt:



It's not available on Etsy, (it's been given to a bricks and mortar shop) but something very similar will be soon. I also have a few other suncatchers similar to it. Click the image to go to those, and my other suncatchers: