Thrift Store Beading - Finding the Good Stuff for Jewelry Making

You can find great beads at craft stores, gem shows, or on-line outlets.  However, if you are just starting to make jewelry or are a budget-conscious experienced jewelry designer, you may want to find a cheaper alternative for finding the valuable beads you crave.  Thrift stores often sell jewelry for really low prices and you have the benefit of helping a charity.  You may find a good piece you love to wear as is.  More likely, you will find a broken necklace, stuff with a few chipped stones, something missing clasps, or perhaps a badly constructed piece - all with some really great beads.  You can recycle these thrift store finds by cleaning and re-purposing the beads into new trendy necklaces with other beads in your stock or turn them into stretch or wrap bracelets.  Your jewelry making can then produce some fashionable new item for yourself, a special piece to give as a gift, or if you craft for extra income - an addition to your sales table.  

As an example of this idea, a few months back, I found some Hubei turquoise beads in some really ugly necklaces at the thrift store.  One necklace was short and extremely heavy (about 2 pounds), the other was free-form bead nuggets rounded and polished.  Both necklaces had a few chipped or cracked stones.  Since the store was having an extra discount sale that day, I decided to buy them and re-construct them into something more wearable.  I also thought I could use the bad beads to test some of the various stone polishing techniques I had seen on hobby sites.  I had also bought  a multi-strand necklace featuring green African turquoise on another trip to re-create into something new as well.  

Over the last 2 weeks, we have had several days of freezing rain, sleet, or snow, so I decided to start on my turquoise projects. I started by creating 2 traditional Southwest looks of graduated necklaces with the disc/tire beads and modernizing it with contrasting-color round beads as spacers/finishers.  Using all the disc beads still made the necklaces too heavy, so I left out the largest beads of each color and ended up with necklaces that weighed around a quarter-of-a-pound each.  Then I took two of the strands from the multi-strand necklace and combined them to create a longer southwest-style nugget  and chip necklace.  Since I still had beads leftover,  I thought I'd try a mixed nugget and disc necklace that would feature the matrix on the larger tire beads by treating them like a donut bead.  They were TOO heavy and broke the wire I used to test my design idea (see middle photo).  Instead, I decided to try wire-wrapping and corded necklaces for some boho-chic looks featuring the blue or green colored disc beads as focal points.  Finally, I took the miniature turquoise colored round beads layer on the multi-strand and combined it with small glass pearls to create a choker-length necklace. Details on each finished piece of jewelry may be found on my Pinterest page (photos of all new in top of this post, photo of original finds in bottom of post)).

After making 7 necklaces and 2 pendants from the original 3 thrift store finds, I still have a short strand of crystal bends, a partial strand of small baroque pearls, and many silver-tone spacers beads to use as spacers in future jewelry or craft projects. I also have 10 polished stones from the bad ones for my rock collection or cactus garden.   I re-purposed the clasps from the two Hubei necklaces in the new ones and will use the chain from the multi-strand in another project later.

Speaking of re-purposing, the chain on the nugget necklace was an old pocket watch chain of my Dad's.  It still had the watch bow attached, so I'm guessing the watch fell and broke when the chain did.  The chain was in a small drawer of my Mom's jewelry box with other broken chain sections.  Before Mom passed, she told me she kept them there for Dad to use for repairing chains or when he needed to replace a clasp.  She said I could keep them or throw them away, so I dumped them in a plastic container because I thought they might be re-purposed as necklace extenders and heavy-weight clasps.  

One America Appeal Concert for Hurricane Relief

Five ex-presidents (George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama) unite along with many entertainers to raise funds for hurricane (Harvey, Irma, Maria) victims (Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands) at a fundraising concert on Oct, 21, 2017.   CNN reported  about 33 million dollars as of the day of the concert.  Donations were taken before the concert and will continue after the concert at www.oneamericaappeal.org.  The 3.5 hour concert may also be viewed on the donation website.

Watch current president's message for event below.

Proud Texan, United American

United States and Texas Flags

I was proud to see so many Texas residents helping out their neighbors during Hurricane Harvey floods.  When asked why they did it, many said “It was the way I was raised” or “We help each other out around here when we see a need.”  I was raised that helping out one’s neighbor was just the “southern” way.  I am proud to also say this is the American way.

How do I know all Americans want to help their neighbors and will unite when faced with natural or terrorist plights?  I saw what “northerners” and others did during 9/11.  The devastation was different, the loss of innocent life greater, yes.  Yet – we united, we cried, we helped, we rebuilt.  We will do it again.

In every bad situation, our first responders, our everyday heroes, and our citizens do not give excuses “It’s the government’s job, so we should stay out of the way.” Or “Let the Bible-thumpers do the helping out because that is what God told them to do.”  Instead everyone pitches in where they can. Real Americans give physical help, donate supplies, provide food, offer shelter, and give money when and where we can.  North, south, east, west, democrat, or republican – stand united as Americans.  Natural or others enemies without or within can only defeat us when we are divided.

So how can you help now? If you are physically willing, find a local volunteer group or church sending people to help in the crisis and offer you strength and skills.  If you can provide supplies, again find a local organization, who is providing a gathering and distribution service, and ask to be a volunteer or to be a mini-collection point for bringing in supplies to donation stations.  If you can’t do that, then donate a few of the needed supplies via one of the collection points.  If these ideas are not you, then money is always needed to provide the above plus food and shelter, give to a verified purpose-driven charity or through a local church designating funds, supplies, or volunteer labor for aid.

P.S.  Shame on those who posted fake stories and photos to exploit political agenda, anti-Christian rhetoric, or poking fun at bad situations - just for more hits or views!  Shame on those of us who did not read or look closely for the truth before passing these on via social media.  Shame on those who will further exploit these poor victims via looting, gas hording, fake work orders, and fund stealing scams. 




So proud of Americans, then this sad unpatriotic thing http://2bproductive.blogspot.com/2017/09/nfl-makes-big-business-blunder.html happened less than a month later, fortunately most US citizens were not going to let it go on.