Turning Something Old into Something New!

I just wanted to do a quick post about a fun project that I just finished for a friend as a gift to her mother... turning a piece of antique lamp fringe into a necklace!  The fringe was found in my friend's great-grandmother's button box that had come down to her possession.  Her mom loved to play with the fringe as a child... thus the idea was born to turn what was left of that lamp into a special piece of jewelry.  My friend Karen came to me with this small length of fringe, much of it with broken beads, to see what we might be able to do. 

I started by cutting off enough of the fringe strands to start making a tassel... which was the basic part of our idea for the necklace.  The original fringe was strung on cotton thread which obviously needed to be re-done.  I'm not really a seed beader so I used the skills in my personal toolbox to restring the strands on beading wire.  It was some trial and error to decide how many beaded strands to include in the tassel.  The beading wire makes the strands a little stiff, so I added in a few strands of chain with beads from the fringe at the ends to add more movement.  There's also one of the small black beads at the top of the tassel too.

Once the tassel was finished, I turned my attention to the rest of the necklace.  I assessed what I had left and came up with a design that incorporated a few of the long tube beads that were undamaged as well as the small black, pink, and green beads that are almost an English cut.  Unfortunately, the tube beads were just too brittle and I had to exclude them from my final design.  In place of those intended links I added some little black and gold vintage Czech glass beads that I bought at a local bead show a few years ago.

I hope my friend's mom is happy with the finished necklace and the thought behind it!  It's always fun to be entrusted with a special custom piece of jewelry.