Tuesday, June 21, 2011

A little something old

In early May, I was up in Frederick, MD. I was originally supposed to run the half marathon with my friend but due to an incredibly hectic first part of the year, I wasn't able to train properly and ended up dropping down to the 5K. While my friend and I were there, we had a delicious dinner at VOLT and wandered through a couple of shops downtown. In one of the shops, I found an old vintage necklace. I don't really buy much jewelry these days but this one jumped out at me. I loved the colors and the beads were quite unique. Upon closer inspection, I think some of the beads may have been paper mache.

The problem with old things is that they break down. When I bought it, it was already missing a couple of beads on the inner strand. I knew that I was going to have to re-string it at some point. I didn't quite realize how soon. The second time I wore it, I was standing in my kitchen when one of the strands broke. I gathered as many of the beads as I could and threw everything into a plastic baggy. I had a feeling I could probably buy some Swarovski pearls to replace the missing beads. It turned out, I had some pearls on hand that would go well in the necklace. I was still missing a couple of separator beads but for where they would be sitting, I threw in a couple of seed beads, and you can't really tell the difference. I restrung the necklace as close to the original as possible and it still fits.

Vintage necklace, re - strung

Vintage necklace, re-strung

Vintage necklace, re - strung