It happens. A clasp snaps, old silk cord frays, stones fall out. Or maybe the piece is old and in need cleaning. We all have or find jewelry that is broken, or styled not to our taste or simply dirty from age and poor storage. There’s nothing fun about jewelry you can’t wear or give as a gift and just letting it sit because you can’t bear to throw it out is very frustrating. Well, you don’t have to suffer and you don’t have to force yourself to toss it away.

Broken Clasp Very old brooches are prone to this problem. After all, a clasp is a moving part and all that motion means friction and friction wears on the metal weakening it til it finally breaks. Force can also cause breakage of parts, leaving behind a brooch front that connects to nothing. There are two alternatives. Thr first is to repair or replace the clasp. This can be done by soldering a new clasp back on. The other alternative is to use the brooch as a component of a whole new piece of jewelry. Old and broken brooches have successfully been used in bracelets, neckpieces, head pieces as well as in other art forms such as collages.

Bracelets and Necklaces with broken clasps can be repaired by replacing the clasp. If that’s the only problem, then that is the best thing to. How complicated this will be depends on how the clasp was originally attached. the easiest to replace are clasps that are attached by jump rings. Just attach the new clasp with the old jump rings – or if it’s the jump rings that need replacing you can keep the still working clasp and simply replace the jump rings.

Broken Chain A broken chain can be reclaimed by removing the broken or twisted part and reconnecting. This will result in a smaller piece. Sometimes that makes no difference but other times it means a piece that no longer fits. Broken chain can be reused by a jewelry artist in other pieces. For example, smaller lengths of chain from a bracelet can become dangling earring components. A necklace can become a bracelet (and earrings). Chains look great as design components in handbags, coats, jackets, and can be effectively used in other art forms.

Broken Cord or Thread Very old knotted pearl necklaces have been known to fray and otherwise disintegrate. If one has all the beads (or enough of them anyway) it is a simple matter of reknotting with a new cord. Similarly for strung beads, keeping the beads in order they can be restrung on new cord or wire. If some beads are missing a reworking of the design is called for. Depending on the amount missing and the position of the missing, the end result can be similar or very different – even enough to be considered a whole new work – from the original broken necklace.

Things become more complicated if the broken thread is within a beadwoven work of wearable art. Because then there may be a lot of reconstruction and restrengthening of the work. Depending on the severity and other considerations there might be a few different ways to reppair the piece from simple sewing to reattaching to backing (or lining) a formerly unbacked piece to whatever innovations the repair artist decides will work best.

Missing Parts – Especially Rhinestones I adore rhinestonme jewelry, don’t you? Sometimes, however, those stones go missing. I have received pieces with no stones at all (both because they were never put on or they fell off). This is the best time to reinvent the piece. Instead of all crystal replacement stones I like to use colors. I adore taking old clasps, cleaning then and fitting in colorful rhinestones to replace yellowed or missing ones. Here are some example:

Another way to reinvent old or broken jewelry is, as I mentioned briefly above, to use it as a component of a totally new work. My prize winning work, “The Balance of Chaos and Harmony” is an example of this.

Balance of Chaos and Harmony

Note the two vintage rhinestone shoeclips bridging the bead netting center work to the simple cross woven back lengths.

What do you want to know more about? This is just the tip of a lovely iceberg

If you have jewelry to be repaired or reinvented and either need advice or don’t want to do it yourself, I can help.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 at 12:51 PM and is filed under Artist at Work, Good to Know. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.