Wednesday's Wear It Or Frog It.

Before After

I have been beading for about eight years now and in that time I have built up quite a collection of jewellery. I have beaded many necklaces and bracelets, though not too many earrings, which is odd because they are the item of jewellery that I wear the most.

So, what happens to those necklaces and bracelets that have had so many hours invested in them, not just in the time spent making the piece, but the hours pouring over pictures and techniques in magazines for inspiration, the rummaging in the bead box for the perfect focal point and searching on the web for the vital missing ingredient?

I give some pieces to friends and family as gifts for birthdays and Christmas, sell some but more often than not I keep them for myself. Usually I wear them constantly for a few days, until the next bright shiny objects comes along and then I pop them into one of my many jewellery boxes. Once consigned to a jewellery box, many of these items never see the light of day again, which is such a waste of the materials and the time I invested in making them.

So, not only do I have a stash of beads that have been waiting to be made into pretty jewellery, but I also have a huge stash of pretty jewellery waiting forlornly in a box for the day I might once again choose to wear it.

Starting this week, I will be rummaging through my jewellery stash to pick out a piece that I rarely wear, I will be wearing it for a day to see if I still like it, if there is something that I can do improve it so that I will wear it more often or if the piece needs to be frogged so that the beads can be used to make something else. I will post my results on Wednesday's.

This week's piece is a bracelet that I made 2 years ago with a huge stash of leftover beads, it took quite a long time and I do love it and wear it on rare occasions. However, it is a bit huge and could probably be quite deadly to animals and small children if I bumped into them with it, so I am limited to wearing it, also it is a total pain knocking against the desk when I am typing in work. I really didn't want to take it apart but the beads are so pretty it was really wasteful to just leave them hidden away. In my continued quest for a statement necklace I had a bit of a brain wave, snipped a bit of chain to the right length, added a jump ring, attached the bracelet to either side of the chain and viola, I now have a lovely chunky bright necklace that I can wear without the fear of causing any harm to my office furniture!

Do you have a huge stash of jewellery that is languishing away in drawers, boxes or cupboards? I'd love to see what pieces you dig out and if you alter them or reuse the materials for something else. You can email pictures to ottbs@hotmail.com.uk