Cheap jewelry... from cheap jewelery.

Well this time around something totally different from my usual forte, but something I've been meaning to dabble with for some time now.

The main inspiration came from when I got a few extra bits and bobs when I emptied one of the local fabric shops from black pleather and technical fabric... (more on those perhaps in a very later date).

metal001

 

Now the decorations by themselves aren't going to do much, so we need something to fabricate these into necklace form.

I had actually bought some chain and a few end hooks at a previous point in time, but had misplaced those, so while at the not so local cheapo mart picking up garage supplies, I wandered into the cheapo jewelry stand, and while the prices were most likely inflated for what you could get the materials from a specialist store, but these were here and now, so I took up a few sets, and promptly dismantled them into their basic pieces:

metal000 by ~finnleo~, on Flickr

There was a few styles of chains, some ornaments, and whatnots, which I then started try and make something interesting out of with some basic tools:

metal003

 

small pliers to force open, and close up again the connection rings, a pair oh snips that I didn't care too much about, since doing this sort of thing wreaks these things. And a sewing machine needle to open up the ends of the smaller chain.

no WIP photo's, or the sorts since this was a bit fiddly, and I thought again i'd focus on doing instead of taking photos.

 

but the end results was a selection of more or less presentable necklaces:

[/ur]

metal002

A few of them ended up without a clasp, so the dolls head will have to come off to put these on, but I did find that the lighter ornaments would have been problematic with the clasps dragging the chain back causing a bit of a iffish look. But overall I am pleased... maybe see these on actual dolls in some time.

Edited August 11, 2019 by finnleo

they look great!! i'd love to try to make some doll-scale jewelry some day ^-^ i'm a big fan of the key necklace you made!! 

Thank you very many. They are a bit fiddly to do, but with some amount of patience and suitable snips and pliers, it shouldn't be impossible to do. Also just finding the right materials to cannibalize, which has been a bit of a pain personally.

There are a lot of options for these sorts of parts on Etsy. The one caution I have is metal oxidization stains are the one thing I haven't been able to get out of a doll with Dream Rescue, so be careful of low quality materials.

What a great idea! They look lovely  

I need to get around to doing something like this, I've got some chain and charms floating around that would be the right scale. . .perhaps after I reorganize the Room of Shame into a proper Craft Room again and can actually FIND the things.

I really like the three-tier chain, you don't see those for dolls very often!