Frankenstein of Jewelry

Remember that shirt I had with the built-in necklace? Well, it broke. One day I picked it out of my pile of laundry to find beads spilling all over the floor. I saved them, of course, and the shirt too, though I don't know what I'm going to do with that. The beads, however, I found a use for just recently when I decided I really needed a blue necklace. Online searches for such were going nowhere, so I took matters into my own hands and busted out my bead collection.

Mixing the crystal blue beads from the broken shirt and a few darker beads from a kit I got when I was just a kid, I was able to construct a pretty passable design, if I do say so myself. The only problem was I didn't have all the findings needed to complete the project.

I had to get myself out to JoAnn Fabrics (which is an awesome store for DIYers—they almost always have valuable coupons) to buy crimp rings that would allow me to connect the cord to a clasp and a backing/hook for the big blue bead that would be the pendant. All in all, this necklace cost me about 3 dollars in new parts—everything else was salvage and stuff I already had. Including the blue ribbon, which is what I ultimately decided to use as a cord.

After construction, I let this baby hang in my jewelry box for a couple of weeks, but brought it out today to accent the lovely blue-and neutral outfit I wore for yet another workplace presentation. My coworker said it made me look like a teacher, which I guess is the look I was going for.