Repairing - love it or hate it?

I ddi’t set out to do repairs but since I started creating jewellery I’ve had a number of people ask for repairs and alterations. Some of them I’ve been able to help and some of them I’ve referred on to other skilled artisans.

The first one was a beautiful Murano glass bead necklace where the bead wire had broken.

Unfortunately when it broke my friend lost a number of the little red glass beads so I had to hunted around and found replacement ones. This was tricky as they were a tiny bead and not something readily available in Adelaide, but I found a slightly larger bead in the US and got a small string sent over.

I restrung the smaller beads in the middle of the necklace and used the larger ones on either side so they sat at the back of the neck round the clasp where their slight different in size went unnoticed. Needless to say my friend was very happy to have her pretty little red glass bead necklace to wear again.

I’ve also done a little alteration to a rather pretty necklace made of ribbon and glass beads that were made for a friend by someone special overseas. The necklace is a choker style but was very short and so she hadn’t been able to wear it. She asked if I could add some chain to it and lengthen it enough for her to wear comfortably.

I found a small belcher chain in my supplies and adapted it to fit either side of the necklace to a good length. I added a parrot clasp and there it was – a perfect fit and ready to wear.

Yep, I don’t usually do these types of jobs. I do prefer to make a special from scratch but it is very gratifying to be able to work with a client and remodel or repair a piece to their satisfaction so they can use it again.