New Life

I have a box that I keep my old jewelry in.  It sits on a shelf in my closet and I rarely take it out for a number of reasons.  The design or color of an item got 'old'.  A clasp might have broke.  Or in the case of earrings, I no longer have a pair because one of the two was lost.  For the longest time, I hesitated to get rid of the jewelry in this box because they were finely made using top notch materials or had some sort of sentimental value. 

But eventually I began to recycle my jewelry.  I've been gradually developing my jewelry making skills over the last year or two (beading, wire wrapping, metal-smithing, etc.) and I've found ways to incorporate pieces from this old jewelry box into the new items I make.  For example, I make lariats a lot and I sometimes use earrings to embellish the ends.  I've also done this with bracelets.  I had an old sterling silver chain in my jewelry box for the longest time.  It was worn, but its quality was apparent.  Left alone, it seemed a bit plain and maybe a bit masculine.  But then I attached a few beads of varying colors and lengths and suddenly it took on new life.  It no longer seemed masculine and I was excited to wear it.  

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