How to Make a Necklace With Old Brooches
Transform your grandmother's antique brooches into a trendy and modernized piece of jewelry -- a customized necklace. Or, rummage for distinctive brooches at garage sales and thrift stores to find these dated pieces at a bargain price. Group the brooches by color, material or date as you decide on a theme for your masterpiece. For example, fashion a necklace using brooches reflecting nature, such as birds, flowers and butterflies. Or, design a more thoughtful necklace by using treasures inherited from a family member for a memorial piece.
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Things You'll Need
- Chain necklace, 12 to 24 inches
- Masking tape
- Satin ribbon, 1/4 to 1-inch-wide
- Scissors
- Brooches
- Spray paint, metallic (optional)
- Wire cutters
- Needle-nose pliers
- Hot glue gun
Instructions
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Put a chain necklace that is anywhere from 12 to 24 inches in length around your neck. Alternatively, replace the chain necklace with 1/4 to 1-inch-wide satin ribbon; cut to your desired length. Observe where the necklace begins to reach around the back of your neck. Place a strip of masking tape around the chain on both sides of your neck so you know where to later not add brooches.
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Remove the necklace from your neck. Place it on your work surface and curve as if it were being worn around your neck, and identify the center of the necklace.
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3
Remove all of the pin backs from the brooches using wire cutters so that the brooches do not come open and poke the wearer. Bend any sharp points or jagged edges with a pair of needle-nose pliers to prevent these from snagging clothing or scratching skin. Spray paint all of the brooches using a metallic spray paint, if desired, to give them an updated or decorated finish.
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Arrange the brooches along the length of the necklace according to color, design or size. Coordinate the different colors and sizes so that the necklace is somewhat symmetrical.
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Place the largest brooch in the center of the necklace for balance if the necklace is less than 12 inches in length. Move the largest brooch up along the middle of one side in between the center and one of the masking tape guides if the necklace is longer than 12 inches. Add as many additional brooches to each side of the necklace as you want, but do not go past the masking tape guides.
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Attach brooches together in pairs or groups using hot glue; this will stop the necklace from being so flexible that the necklace twists around when worn. Overlap the edges of the brooches, if desired, so that the glue is less visible.
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Glue the brooches onto the necklace in the desired positions using hot glue. Attach the top half of brooches that are larger than 2 inches in diameter or heavy so these do not flip over when worn.
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Tips & Warnings
If you are a jewelry maker, you can fashion the necklace using metal rings and beads, and then add a single brooch for a pendant in the center of the necklace.
Identify brooches made during different eras that are made of particular materials and in specific styles, i.e., wood brooches from the 1960s or with an Art Deco design from the 1920s, as you construct your necklace. You might find a brooch that is worth a lot of money and that you might want to preserve rather than alter it for a necklace.
Make more than one necklace with brooches, each of different lengths, and wear them all at the same time for a chandelier style.
Do not use a chain necklace that is thin or made from a high percentage of gold; if it is too weak it will not hold up to the weight of the brooches.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
