Originally posted on Monday, March 26, 2012
I saw a necklace in J.Crew back in December that featured a few strands of pearls secured by a ribbon... at the time, as so often happens to me, I thought to myself: Don't buy it! You could make that. And as so often happens, I never ever got around to it...
Not sure why this was different... I think making all the baubles of the girls got me thinking about my own bit of accessories - true, there were more wooden beads left over from the girls creations, but I tried to leave the wooden, giraffe adorned beaded necklaces (favored by art teachers everywhere (best paired with berkinstocks)) firmly in the 90's where they belong.
During some random drawer shuffling I came across a little dual faux pearl strand that was an Easter gift from my late Grandma Forrer sometime around 1990... at the time I thought it was fancy, but it wasn't something a high school girl in the midst of the grunge era was going to easily incorporate into their wardrobe. I think it may have made an appearance for my graduation photos, but other then that it remained in the drawer. I'd pull it out and try to make it work now and then because I really wanted to wear it - especially after Grandma passed away, but it never quite worked the way I wanted it too. A bit too stuffy and formal for me... it would always end up on the top of my dresser instead of on my neck.
Still, I'm so glad that I held onto it, for a variety of reasons - many of which are sentimental in nature, but now I'm trilled to the gills that I did - this was just about the easiest makeover known to (woah)man - I took a pretty satin ribbon in a gold tone and secured it in the existing clasps. I added a bit of fabric adhesive to make it sturdy, and gently melted the edges of the ribbon so they didn't fray. I then took an accent ribbon and tied it in a little bow on the opposite side to throw off the symmetry and give me the warm/cool outfit option.
I know some people are not fans of pearls in general, but I'm happy as a clam about these results - I've worn it 5 times in the last two weeks and have received compliments each time. The whole thing took me about 10 minutes and I've just brought Grandma's pearls into regular rotation. Hurray!
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