The Coolest Piece of Interchangeable Jewelry You've Ever Seen ...

For those who are fans of charm bracelets, like myself, you may be enjoying the kilt pin charm brooch accessory!  I wanted a way to make a stamp on this unique piece and came up with something really one-of-a-kind.  I looked at the brooch itself as an entire piece and thought, "This would be a killer pendant!"  My mind kept reeling from there - each charm dangling from the kilt pin would be attached with a lobster clasp to customize the piece by adding different charms and beads.  A simple chain is attached to either end of the kilt pin with lobster clasps; one attached to the kilt pin, one on the chain itself.  Wanna know something else cool?  Attach a charm or two onto the chain and you've got yourself another necklace!  You can clip the charms onto zipper pulls, purses, cell phone charms and anywhere else you'd like, and probably a few other ideas I'm not thinking of right now!

Take a look at the first few!

The Flying V.  I really like this one, and it might be reeeeaaallly hard to give this one up.  The collection of charms have great imagery of timeless rock n' roll fashion.  The swallow and jewelled music note are both repurposed from two pairs of earrings. The tarnished stud is an applique from an old shirt I had "tailored"; it was sewn onto the shirt by the holes on top and bottom.  An Ace of Hearts charm dangles from the bottom hole.  The solid steel peace charm came from a dollar-store bracelet.  The guitar pendant is an actual replica of the Gibson Flying V in Natural, with matching authentic Gibson guitar pick!  The box chain that makes the kilt pin a pendant is 16 inches long, and any one of the charms' lobster clasps can fit around the chain to be worn as a single pendant, if you like!  And what are those hearts, you ask?  Beautiful, no?  These are red adventurine, that turn into a deep orange, much like the ripe mandarins around Christmas.  I had bought them from dear Agnes at artfaerie on Etsy (hi, Agnes! *waves hello!*), when she was clearing out her collection of beads about a year ago.  I had found a few stray, and the colour are a great match to the guitar's finish.   There is one on each end of the chain, and featured on the Peace charm and Gibson guitar pick charm.

Fun Foto Fact!  I used a couple of LPs for the background images to photograph these necklaces.  The first three are Led Zeppelin's "Physical Graffiti" (Jimmy Page's preference of guitar was Gibson), the last three are Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" - both classic albums!  What do you think of the background choice? 

The Mix Tape.  This one's got a "Miami-meets-gothic" retro vibe to it!  The kilt pin and square silver 'mirror' charm were given to me, amongst other pieces of jewelry that were clattering about her jewelry box, by my stepmum, who's gifts have made earlier appearances in my pieces!  The black rosette cabochon, courtesy of snapcrafty (high-five, guys!), is glued to the corner of the 'mirror' charm, with a fantastic reflective effect on the flower.  The snowflake obsidian heart charm was a great vintage find at a local flea market, and there's that other jewelled music note!  That came from a pair of earrings - the other one's in the Flying V piece.  I love this cassette charm, from a reclaimed necklace.  I was a fiend at making mix tapes back in the day, graduating to mix CDs and playlists - I still refer to all of these as 'mix tapes'.  (I know - it's like your parents calling DVDs 'tapes'!)  The pink Fender guitar pick with the palm tree image is a great find!  The rose blush faceted glass beads are courtesy of floridaangel (Guten Tag!), adding a great final touch to a 'punk-princess-meets-Pretty-In-Pink' look!

Fun Foto Fact!  The background image for the Mix Tape is Madonna's "Like A Virgin"!

The original piece, the Water Lily bracelet

I've mentioned this beauty in my 'Handmade Christmas' post as a gift to my stepmum.  The previous life of these beads were in the form of a bracelet, as part of my Artbeads.com Design Partner Portfolio featuring their Glass and Silver products.  (You can read more about these Artbeads.com products here!)  The exception would be that stunning handmade lampwork glass bead you keep staring at (yes, I know you keep checking it out!), made by Lisa Lutz at BeadCrazed (hello, Lisa! *waves hello*), and a Mexican turquoise nugget from my own stash.  My stepmum wears jewel tones exceptionally well, and I found that vibrant colours like these remind me of her style.  I had found a beautiful and soft pashmina scarf in a vibrant turquoise with silver detail; a perfect colour match to the motif of the beads in this bracelet.  Sometimes it's heartbreaking to dismantle something you already like, but I couldn't be happier with the transformation.  Instead of making the kilt pin itself a pendant, I had simply included a round link chain for her to wear the charms as pendants.  My stepmum had sent me a thank-you email a few days later for the scarf and pin; I'm so happy she likes them! 

I'm very excited about these new pieces, and I have a few more ideas on the way!  Whaddayathink?  Where would you wear your pin?  Where would you put your charms?