Repurposing Antique Jewelry

[Bron357]

My heart breaks knowing people melt down exquisite and rare working old watches or pull them apart to harvest the gemstones.
If something is broken or worn out, sure, but not destruction just for the gold melt value.
I like to repurpose.
Ive done a few watches to bracelets and a few brooches to necklaces or bracelets.

 

[88_star]

@Bron357 those watch conversions are really nicely done!

 

[AllAboardTheBlingTrain]

I haven’t bought anything to repurpose, but my mom inherited a bunch of my grandma’s jewelry and if there’s something we can’t figure out a use for in it’s present form, it’s been repurposed! Sometimes the conversion is just tweaking the functionality of a piece (eg she had a mathapatti, which is a headpiece, we tweaked it into a necklace because it was too big and unwieldy to wear on the head) and sometimes it’s pulling it apart for it’s constituent bits (eg one of her brooches was harvested of its melee).

 

[Lookinagain]

I found this brooch for a great price and knew I wouldn't wear it so had a bangle made. I don't think I would have torn it apart. I don't have any problem pulling old pieces apart if there is nothing special about the setting. Or I just don't like the setting but the stones are nice.

 

[CaseyLouLou]

I found this brooch for a great price and knew I wouldn't wear it so had a bangle made. I don't think I would have torn it apart. I don't have any problem pulling old pieces apart if there is nothing special about the setting. Or I just don't like the setting but the stones are nice.

Ooh! It’s hard to tell but did you bend it to contour your wrist and was that difficult? I love it. I have wondered if bar brooches could be bent like that.

 

[Lookinagain]

Ooh! It’s hard to tell but did you bend it to contour your wrist and was that difficult? I love it. I have wondered if bar brooches could be bent like that.

Well, I didn't do it, but yes, it was bent. Grace did it. I sent her photos first of it from all angles to see if she thought her bench could do and and she said that they could and they added the stems to make it a bangle. Here is a side view.

 

[clairebc]

@Bron357 @Lookinagain Thanks for posting pics of your conversion projects, really helps visualize different options!

 

[stepcutnut]

Sure! I have found that old cut melees can be quite expensive so I usually have a specific project in mind when I am looking for pieces to buy for the purpose of dismantling them. I have also found that smaller size old cut melees are harder to source (below 2.5mm) and that it’s actually easier to source bigger melee sizes. It’s even more difficult to find smaller melee in specific sizes or in graduating sizes. Unless the vendor for the melee and the designer are all in-house or one company, I think it’s just not worth it for most melee vendors to weed through to find such small melees in specific sizes to sell. For a couple of my projects, I specifically needed old cut melee in graduating sizes. So I looked for brooches that have such graduated melees.

Here is a pic of my graveyard of leftovers.


I used this brooch for most of the melees on this halo clip (a few of the melee needed to be bigger than the biggest ones on the brooch so Caysie had to source the bigger ones).

Here is a thread on the whole project.

Cordelia the 2.81 OMC and her sartorial namesake by CVB

There are some twists and turns as to how this whole piece came about so feel free to skip to the pics! There is an antique ring that has lived in the “ring inspo” folder in my phone for 8 years. That ring is actually the one that lead me to create the folder in the first place and the first...

www.pricescope.com

The ring and the other brooch were used for setting for this stone. I haven’t done a thread on it yet.


I do have a few ideas as to what I wanted to do with the leftovers as I am done with the 2 main projects for which I bought them. Mainly I want to use the 2 trefoils from the brooch to make it into a cross over ring kind of like this.


However, I still have a project pending so I need to save some pennies before I finalize what I want to do and get them done lol. I also think it’s always nice to have some graduated melees on hand for possible future projects since they are hard to source.

Thank you for posting, I really love how you’ve repurposed these into more wearable items for yourself, they are lovely!

 

[stepcutnut]

My heart breaks knowing people melt down exquisite and rare working old watches or pull them apart to harvest the gemstones.
If something is broken or worn out, sure, but not destruction just for the gold melt value.
I like to repurpose.
Ive done a few watches to bracelets and a few brooches to necklaces or bracelets.

Beautiful pieces! I love your creativity in making these pieces wearable for you

 

[stepcutnut]

I found this brooch for a great price and knew I wouldn't wear it so had a bangle made. I don't think I would have torn it apart. I don't have any problem pulling old pieces apart if there is nothing special about the setting. Or I just don't like the setting but the stones are nice.

I love your brooch conversion-such a lovely piece!