Bringing the Past Into the Present

Old jewelry can be a great starting place for beading projects. Sometimes they're falling apart and need rejuvenating. Sometimes they're falling apart and just need a complete overhaul into something entirely new. Sometimes they just need to be rescued from the past and brought into the present. Styles and trends change, even in jewelry; and retro doesn't always work.

For today's project, I took an old freshwater pearl necklace that had an aging clasp. The silver was looking more like gunmetal, so it was time to go.

I liked the simplicity of the necklace, but it needed a silver clasp, not a silver-wannabe one. Plus, it needed a little kick to ramp up the style just a bit. So I removed the clasp and restrung all the pearls. I didn't take away any of the integrity of the original design, just improved on it.

It's still a simple, minimalist freshwater pearl necklace, but it's been restrung to give it a longer lifespan; and it enjoys a new clasp and a little kick in style.

Just by changing the clasp (a simple sterling silver lobster clasp), the necklace was improved. But the Tribe Hill silver cones gave it that little oomph to improve without overpowering the original simple style.

It's very easy to update old looks in jewelry. Just a little imagination and you can manage to keep the original style AND bring the piece into the present style-wise.