When you break jewellery, it isn’t always easy to repair. I enjoy recycling and up-cycling, it’s a creative challenge with an earth-kind bonus. Especially when you loved the original piece of jewellery.

My latest fix is a pendant that I’ve repaired before, it really likes to escape! Originally the crystal was set in a thin silver tip strung on a chain. When it fell out, I gave everything a good clean and re-set the stone. So about 6 months later the silver tip split. I was left with an un-drilled crystal point and decided to wire wrap it. Another option could involve making a new tip with polymer clay or buying a new silver setting and re-mounting it.

So this was my first wire-wrapping attempt:

I love this wrap, but the wire I used was too fine to last very long. I wear this pendant every day, so it gets a lot of knocks and bumps. The top wraps just didn’t stand up to the wear and I needed to wrap it again.

So this week I decided to wrap my crystal with copper, using a thicker wire and a different top fastening. The wrap isn’t as pretty as the silver one, but it feels stronger and that was the main goal.

Have you fixed up some old jewellery? I’d love to hear about any jewellery you’ve repaired or up-cycled.