The Band Practice Collection

Round 2 of Suze's jewelry redesign project was delivered today.  She was delighted!  We're calling it the Band Practice Collection because of how it came about.  For several years, Suze taught music lessons in her studio to a group of ladies in their golden years who wanted to learn something new or brush up on old skills. Due to health and other issues, it came to be that all the ladies needed to meet at one home, and Suze delivered the lessons to them.  Over the years, they formed a "group" and called their sessions "Band Practice."  Her payment was a sum of money that they insisted she use for herself only...no bills, no gifts to anyone, just something special for herself.  She saved it up, and this jewelry redesign is what she chose.

She will be at the Spirit of the West Cowboy Gathering in Ellensburg WA February 14-17, and some of the new pieces are for this event.  She is performing and wanted new stage eye-catchers.  So I delivered.  We'll start with her favorite.

BEFORE:  A typical 60s necklace of an assortment of plastic beads.  
Not very inspiring.  


But Suze always liked my Winged Peace necklace featured in Stringing magazine, so...

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AFTER:
"Western Winged Peace", a custom version of that necklace.  I added bone, ceramic, resin, tagua nut, chain, and a fabuous rusted pendant.    

The yellow beads became earrings with added bone and tagua.

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Here are a few more redesigns.  Each uses mainly the beads in the original, but I add glass, metal, or findings from my own stash to "make it right" and to put my own style on it.  Sometimes it needs to be longer (or shorter), or chunkier (or slimmer), or more symmetrical (or a bit crazy).  It all depends on what the beads in the original tell me.  

BEFORE: It's a 3-strand necklace of various gemstone chips. The stringing material was fishing line, not good for jewelry.

MIDWAY: The exploded necklace. I separated all the chips and findings so I knew how much I had to work with. I decided to group similar chips together instead of mixing them up.

AFTER: The finished necklace is about 38" long, plenty to double. I added a sterling toggle clasp, size 13 charlottes between the chips for flexibility, and a gather of coral chips where the cross attaches in the center. Earrings complete the look.

Here is a necklace that just needed to be lengthened into a rosary-style.  So I added quite a bit of glass and some coral.  Suze wanted more red and liked the two colors of turquoise in the original piece.

BEFORE: Lots of shapes and styles of magnasite beads and some turquoise. The clasp is nice, but there is no flexibility.

AFTER: This is a very symmetrical rosary-style necklace, about 38" long. I mixed brass and silver and put brown iris charlottes and little silver balls between the beads.

Here is a necklace that needed to be tamed a bit.  It's hard to tell it's the same set of beads!  The blackened copper filigree pendant is fabulous.

BEFORE: We had cut it up some to check out the shells. So here are the parts. There are two types of plastic beads, some chain, and the shells. The copper chain was an extra.

AFTER: I grouped similar types of beads by size, larger (from the front) to smaller. Spreading out the shells with smaller beads makes them easier to appreciate. The chain was eliminated except for an extender to make the piece more "layerable."

You can see Suze's style and color palette preferences in the necklaces above.  The next project is a real change of pace.  The crystal links had languished in a jewelry box for far too long.  They had been part of a necklace years ago, and Suze wanted it updated into pieces she could wear.

BEFORE: A lovely strand of Swarovski crystals in jewel tones and all linked with sterling jump rings. Too short for a comfortable necklace.

I'm sure the ladies from Band Practice would be happy with Suze's gift to herself.

AFTER: Now it's a 2-strand bracelet with a sterling silver toggle and some dangles from the extra crystals. The mis-matched earrings were a hit with Suze!