Gifted jewelry laying in your jewelry box, the overpriced earrings that you never came to wear, or your bracelet that has become out of style. We all have, still good-looking, jewelry that we just can’t wear anymore. Of course, you can sell it on Depop OR you try these hacks on how to repurpose your old jewelry. Some tricks even work for damaged or bad-looking jewelry pieces where your motivation to make them look pretty again has left.
How To Clean Old Jewelry
A lot of old jewelry pieces have lost their spark, because, well, it’s old. But still, this doesn’t mean that you can leave it inside your box. No, try this easy hack, using only toothpaste, natron, or baking soda and a clean cloth.
This is our old and used bracelet.
First, wash it with water. Simply through water, the dirt on the first layer on top is washed off.
Lay your jewelry on a soft clean cloth. You can now use a bit of toothpaste and a little bit of natron or baking soda.
In this step, you simply mix the paste and natron with your piece. You can do this great with the soft cloth but be gentle at the same time. Try to rob both the paste and natron into the piece and every detail of it.
Leave it to soak for about 10-15 min and wash it then with water. After drying it with the cloth gently, your jewelry piece just looks like new. Look at the shine!
How To Fix A Broken Necklace
It can happen so fast: You just casually wore your beautiful necklace and in the next second you have it in your hands because something broke off. Or, you’re wondering why you haven’t worn your favorite necklace for a while. Oh right, it broke.
If any of that sounds familiar to you, I’ve got this great hack for you on how to fix a broken necklace.
#1 How To Fix A Broken Clasp On A Necklace
In many cases, the chain or clasp breaks but the pendant is still good-looking. It’s sad to throw the whole necklace away because of little damage. You don’t have to do that. There is an easy method, that I show you now, how you can reuse your pendant or your chain. You really don’t need technical skills for that. But you do need a small iron pincer.
This gold necklace worked well until the clasp stopped doing its job. As you can see here, the clasp won’t close the chain properly anymore.
To remove the broken clasp, you need a simple and small iron pincer. Look for a little gap in the ring that follows right the clasp. You then grab the ring on the clasp, as seen here, with the pincer and bend the ring with your fingers. You can also use two pincers and bend the ring in two different directions. The gap in the ring should get bigger.
You can now remove the broken clasp or remove both the clasp and the ring. If you have another working clasp, you can now change it here and thread it in the ring. You can get a new clasp in many stores. You can also use a working clasp from an old necklace that you don’t wear. This is just a short-term solution but works well in case of an emergency. For that, you simply repeat what you just did on your old necklace. Then, thread the working clasp into the ring from your other necklace, and voilá.
To close the ring again, you also do the same hack. Whether with two iron pincers or with one and your hand, close the ring by pulling the ring together and making the hole smaller. The chain shouldn’t fall through the hole in the ring anymore.
You’ve got a broken chain? Need some more help with your broken necklace? Check out our article on how to fix a broken necklace.
New Textures
This method works great if you have a new clasp or use an old clasp from a different necklace. But, you don’t have to feel disappointed if you don’t have this chance. You can literally take everything else you have to make a chain out of. You can use cotton ribbons for example, like those that I used.
This gold necklace worked well until the clasp stopped doing its job. As you can see here, the clasp won’t close the chain properly anymore.
To remove the broken clasp, you need a simple and small iron pincer. Look for a little gap in the ring that follows right the clasp. You then grab the ring on the clasp, as seen here, with the pincer and bend the ring with your fingers. You can also use two pincers and bend the ring in two different directions. The gap in the ring should get bigger.
Mix And Match
Maybe this ribbon technique isn’t for everyone. I get that. But, of course, you can do a lot more with loose pendants. For this trick, it’s really helpful to look through all your jewelry boxes. Ask your family members, friends, neighbors, whoever, if they have unused jewelry pieces left. And I’m not just talking necklaces. You can do the same with earring pendants or bracelets.
What To Do With Broken Earrings?
It probably has happened to all of us before. You lost one pair of your favorite earrings or some parts of it broke. You don’t have to worry anymore about not wearing these earrings anymore. There are several methods and tricks on how to reuse the parts of your broken earrings.
- A new pendant: Whether you take an already finished pendant or you make one your own you can easily include your broken earring parts. Your necklace pendant will be unique with new motives, gems, crystals, or other colors and materials. The same is possible for bracelet pendants, of course.
- A unique jewelry box: What could be more sparkly and glittery from the outside if not a jewelry box? Here, it’s your time to be creative again. Pull out all the leftover and slightly broken pieces that you find in your jewelry boxes.
- A new ring: As easy as you can upcycle your necklace pendants, you can also create new rings. Big earring parts are great for that. Buy a cheap plain ring and add your fancy earring to it.
Precious Pieces To One Piece
Maybe you found in your jewelry boxes some precious and fine jewelry pieces with diamonds or pearls in detail. Still, you might not want to wear them because they’re out of style or you just don’t like them. There is a great solution for that. Go to your jeweler nearby or a jeweler that you find in your surrounding.
Professionals can help you way better create unique new pieces of your jewelry. Make new pieces? Yes. Diamonds and gems can be taken out of their settings and put together into new jewelry pieces. The jeweler can create this new unique piece for you specifically.
Work With What You Have
As said in some tips before, you can use several old jewelry pieces to create new ones. To get to those many pieces, don’t hesitate to ask your family members, your partner, your neighbor, or your friends if they have any jewelry pieces they don’t like anymore. If you’re lucky, you get a jewelry box, full of new and old jewelry pieces.
So, as we learned before, you have now so many opportunities. Redesign your just-gifted jewelry pieces or connect them with your own jewelry. If you have jewelry boxes, sort them out. Untangle those piles of necklaces and lay everything you untangled out on a flat underground, as shown in the picture. That’s how you get a clear mind on what sort of pieces you have. You can also sort them according to jewelry pieces (necklaces, rings, earrings, etc.), style, whether you like them or not, or whatever else you want to sort them.
You now have a huge range of all different kinds of jewelry pieces and can unlock your imagination.
By the way, I can imagine this being a great friends night, where everyone brings all their jewelry that they found and you guys share your pieces and are creative together.
It Can Be Easy To Repurpose Your Old Jewelry
Jewelry is special. That’s why we have to treat it as if it was special. It’s just understandable that some pieces get lost in some boxes or that there are times when we don’t take care of our pieces. That doesn’t mean we should rather through our less taken care of pieces away.
If your necklace clasp is broken, you can make new necklaces out of it or reuse the pendant. You can even redesign your jewelry boxes and create new jewelry pieces with broken earring parts. Of course, giving your jewelry a new shine and cleaning it can make a huge difference. As well as asking a jeweler for some redesign of your pieces is an option. Give yourself an overview of all the jewelry that is available to you. Ask your family member and friends and see if you can find some treasures in their old jewelry boxes.
There are many ways how to repurpose your old jewelry. You just have to pick one and start!
