Sparklies - mending outside my comfort zone

I like a lot of different crafts, but one I've only briefly dabbled with is jewellery making. I like the idea of it, and I get inspired easily, but actually doing it frustrates me. Part of the problem is wire - I just can't get comfortable manipulating it, and a lot of the suggestions for beginner's jewellery making involve wire. As much as I love crochet, and love the look and idea of wire crochet, the one time I tried it was a disaster.

I like jewellery though. And as part of the new ethical fashion direction (how many times have I typed that since we started this blog?!?) I wanted to do something with two garnet necklaces I own that aren't getting much rotation as they are broken. Kaput.

So while it isn't a hobby I want to do much of myself, faced with two broken necklaces I realised I was going to have venture into the scary unknown.Thankfully I have friends who are much more adept at this realm to give me advice. (Thanks, Linette!)

And nothing involved wire.

Necklace The First: 

I was given this as a present years ago by grandmother I think and I honestly don't recall when and how it broke. All that happened was the string (fishing line) snapped. Fixing this one was a (simple?) matter of rethreading the beads on a new line and attaching the old clasp. It was quite fiddly to get the knots secure and small.

I wore it out to a comedy gig the other night, and I'm happy to have it back in rotation.

Necklace the Second:
Another garnet necklace, this time on a cord, knotted between each bead. I was in the habit of wearing this tied in a knot at my throat, which I thought looked cool, and it all was great until the day I couldn't untie it. At all. I had to cut it off me. Left with a string of garnets, I thought about this carefully. As I was going to mend necklace the first, and I had another string of garnet beads anyway, I didn't need three garnet necklaces in my jewellery box. What I needed was... a bracelet.
I estimated that I had enough length to do a four strand bracelet, so I bought a clasp that had four attachments points. I used embroidery cotton in a close a colour match as I could manage, heavily waxed for strength.
I tied knots, etc, and while the attachment areas look a bit messy, I think they will hold.

the ends do look a little thread-ful

 And I'm very happy with the result. I get a cool, 4-strand garnet bracelet that I can wear, probably not with a garnet necklace, as that strikes me as a bit too matchy-matchy. But I think it gives good wrist coverage. 

 I even have a small pile of leftover stones that I've cut from their thread and can use in other projects.

I'm not sure I want to do any more jewellery stuff, but I am so happy with how these repair projects have turned out, taking two broken necklaces and giving me two pieces of jewellery I can wear and enjoy.