Saturday, August 4, 2012

Thrift Store Blog Hop



Reveal day!  Whoohoo!
This is Sarah of Poodledo's first go at running a challenge and bloghop and I think she chose a great challenge :)

Here were the rules ;
  • Go to the thrift store/charity shop and buy an item for less that £1 ($1.50 approx at the moment)
  • Take a photo of the item when you get home 
  • Take an "in progress" photo
  • Take a photo when you have finished making your item
  • And blog about it on Saturday August 4th.
 I'm constantly finding treasures at my thrift and second hand shops, so I didn't think I'd have any trouble at finding stuff within the budget. As a matter of fact, I knew my trouble would be in STOPPING finding things >.< lol I had a pair of metal candle holders that were layers of petals held together by a single screw and had plans to use them.... but that fell through >.< Luckily while I was growling and grumbling over my failed plans, I came across one of my lucky finds.

 Yes... that is a bag of jewelry for $0.88. Like I said, I find stuff like this all the time.. sometimes it's salvageable, sometimes it's not.

Here it is out of the bag.


 A HUGE necklace of resin 'amber' beads permanently attached to the string, a necklace of blue plastic beads, also permanently attached to it's string, and a black link necklace that I immediately had plans for... and promptly lost >.<





 And two necklaces of wooden beads .. the purple are wood but all the white on with them are plastic.








 So there's what I found and had to work with.







My first idea had me painting those big purple beads, and two of the medium round greens.  yup, this was one of my failed Panda projects >.<
I had them ALMOST finished before I messed up and had to scrap them .. shame since they'd been getting really cute...*sigh*

So one idea trashed.... onto the next !




So what did I use?

I used that 'Amber' necklace, the blue necklace, the smallest of the green wooden beads, and those stripey purple and white beads, and made three different pieces.

Here are the in progress shots of each.


First I had to alter some of it to work. Here I applied a light coat of black paint to the blue beads, then wiped it off again, leaving a black 'patina' .







 Once the 'patina' was varnished and dried, I began attaching it to the amber by weaving some black waxed cord through the 'three' strands.





And this is where I realize I forgot to take a picture of the second project in progress... oops >.<




and the dingy purple and white beads get painted in orange and 'turquoise'
... because I felt like it. so there :p







Ready to see the end results?






Above and to the right is the bracelet I forgot to snap 'in progress' . The greenish wooden beads strung on orange faux suede and knotted, with one of the black wooden beads as a button hole clasp.












so there you have it :) how I took a bag of 'junk jewelry' and reworked some of it. I'm not happy with the way I finished the ends of that 'amber' one... think if I do another one, or remake this one, I'll do the weaving with a suede or ribbon and cover the ends completely...





Participants 

22 comments:

  1. wow! what a makeover those beads got! amazing!

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  2. I love the paint jobs you've done. The turquoise and orange ones just sprang to life, and the black patina on the turquoise beads was pretty cool too. Glad I'm not the only one who did a paint job *laughs*

    I buy some of my beads by weight from jewellery recyclers. It's a good way to get some unusual items.

    Thanks for taking part, and helping with the banner. What great fun! I think might try another blog ho in the future. I'll see what ideas I come up with :)

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    1. just noticed now I got your blog name wrong in the intro.. and then somehow lost your first name in the hop list >.< lol Can you tell I was rushed and caffeine-less?

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  3. I can't believe you took that bag 'o beads and found something, actually several things, you could make from them. All hope seemed gone to me when you gave up on the panda beads. :-) It shows that with creativity, we can do so much! These turned out wonderfully!

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  4. You did a great job! Awesome lot of beads for 0.88! Will you mind if I ask where you got the skull beads for the earrings you're wearing in the picture too ;-)
    Deb x

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    1. hehe... shhh... they weren't suppose to be seen yet...But since you can only see the very bottom of them, I guess it's not really 'showing' them lol They were part of my beadsoup from my partner for the BSBP ;) I've purchased the same skulls from.... I think it was LimaBeads, but they were a multicolored strand so you don;t get to choose.

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    2. Thanks for sharing, I worried after that you might be offended by the question!

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    3. *snort* nonsense. I'd never be offended by a question.. unless it was insulting or rude and than I'd just ban you ;) lol I've done the same, asking about specific beads or things... how else are we going to find them? I believe these ones are 10mm magnesite skulls and you can find them in various etsy sites as well, just keep an eye on the size of the bead -The 10 mm's are the perfect size for both earrings and charms, but I do have some 12's in earrings. Anything bigger would be too heavy for earrings though.. at least in stone. :)

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  5. I love the painting job. I would never have thought of using black paint to the beads, but the final effect is gorgeous!
    And the plastic beads look better in orange than in white.

    Ambra

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  6. I too like the 'paint job' on those beads, great idea to make them more modern. Nice Work!

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  7. Love how you repurposed your beads - the paint colors are great!

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  8. How creative?! I am very impressed. And what a fabulous bargain! I think I need to move to your town lol

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  9. I really like what you made with your find!

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  10. Wow - ingenious ideas to paint the beads! I love the "patina" look on the turquoise beads and I love how you wove the amber and patina beads together!!! Love the colors of the paint on the old purple beads - don't usually like orange but I love how your beads turned out! Amazing what you created from your bag!

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  11. All that for .88?? I def want to have your thrift shop near my house.. lol I love what you did with your beads. Great job.

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  12. I'm so very impressed! I totally would have stuttered and not had a clue on that bag of beads. I really love what you did to those beads to patina, that was a great idea. You truly turned junk in to jewels!!

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  13. Wow! I love the turquoise/orange combo it is beautiful.I never considered redoing the actual color of beads..you are a genius! I WANT the patina beads and amber bracelet! AND I wanna go shopping with you..that is some bargain!

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  14. You really had a challenge what with the false starts and all! Very nice job! I love the painting you did. I definitely have to take a second look at some of those "permanently strung" strands that I have and see if a little weaving magic is in order. Learning all the time!

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  15. Awesome job! You took that bargain a long, long way. I love how you worked the strands of stuck beads especially. That would have frustrated the heck out of me and I probably wouldn't of stopped to think like that - props to you!

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  16. Wow, you really made something with that bag o beads! I love what you did with that 'amber' necklace. You really put a lot of effort into making something beautiful.

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  17. Clever girl.Love and hugs Tanya

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  18. I think that I would have been pulling my hair out over those beads stuck on the string however I just love what you did with them!

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