Refashioning Store-Bought Jewelry

While I don’t often buy jewelry (and why would I? I have a room full of supplies for custom awesomeness), I do go out to the stores to see what is trendy or new, and I occasionally buy pieces to take apart and refashion into better pieces.

Last weekend I was at the mall and stopped into For Love 21, my favorite accessory store. It is an offshoot of the Forever 21 brand, so that means one thing: on trend, and cheap. I found the following earrings I couldn’t resist for the low low price of $3.80.

You can see the potential, right? The base metal peacock feather is fantastic. Well made, nice etching, etc. What really irritated me about these earrings are the insanely crappy ear-hooks (only tiny people with tiny ears can wear that kind of ear wire), and the even crappier beads. Plastic! Bad colors! I shudder to think. Yuck.

Okay, so I took them all apart and refashioned them with high quality gunmetal findings and glass beads in appropriate colors for less than a dollar. So my *new* earrings still cost less than $5. And they are magnifique, yo.

So don’t discount the mall for finding supplies. You might be surprised at what you find, and how you can improve the pieces to your own standards and taste.

You can buy (and subsequently upgrade) your own pair of earrings here. I think they would also look good with pale pink, like albino peacocks.