DIY Jewellery: Upcycling – repurposing items to make new pieces

I saw these earrings at Zara and fell in love. Like in LOVE.

I love the pretty shape of the earrings, a rectangular stone, with the mix of some organic bumpy sea green sort of prettiness at the bottom.

It just looks great.

The only issue is that I cannot wear earrings, due to my chronic eczema. Any time there is a cut on my body (I currently have one on my lip and it is taking weeks to heal) or when I got my ears pierced as a little girl, the entire area becomes infected and crusty. It is horrific.

But I kept going back to visit them in the store.

I KNEW they would not look good as clip ons. This style, it is meant to be a thin wire like this, and hooped through the ear.

It is also kind of heavy, so there is no way it would be comfortable as a clip on.

I kept touching them, looking at them, and the other day, I finally cave and bought them, but to change them up into necklaces instead because I love the stone so much.

They cost $30 (taxes in).

The stone is also a labradorite. You can see the bluish tinge or sparkle inside the stone when it reflects off the light, that I find very beautiful.

And so I created these two!

First, by chance, I had an old choker chain lying around from another pendant that I used as a longer necklace.

This kind of stone, only works on something with a stiffer chain to give it structure. I couldn’t just sling it on any old chain and expect it to hang well and look nice.

It has to be on something like a hoop, and stabilized so it really shows itself off.

The choker is perfect, because it hangs right at my neck and will go with tops that I have, that are awkward in its v-neck or cut, and needs a necklace that is higher up on my torso.

The second necklace, was the one I got from Anthropologie that usually has a bee charm hanging on it:

The beauty of the bee charm is that I can remove it and sling on this charm instead.

I even love the way the horseshoe loops with the chain on there!

I also love that it looks like it was meant to be — the correct tone of brassy gold, and everything. Now I have two necklaces if I choose to swap them out — the bee one, or this rectangular stone one.

And all for $30 or $15 per necklace.

Do you ever look at jewellery and wish it was something else or repurposed into something different?