Happy Groundhog Day!  If you’re into all things Groundhoggish and/or Bill Murray, you might enjoy this post I wrote on another blog, in honor of the holiday.

 

Having a toddler means many things…but the one that comes to mind right now is:

Broken jewelry.

My child has gone through three of my necklaces recently, and since I try to keep a wardrobe of things I love to wear, including accessories, they were all favorites. One I haven’t yet figured out how to fix, but the other two are back in working condition thanks to a few simple tools I keep in a jewelry kit:

I’d recommend:

Mini needle-nosed pliers
Mini wire cutters
Beading wire/silk thread/fishing line for re-stringing
Spare earring backs, either the metal or clear rubbery kind (I’m always losing these)
Crimps
Clasps
Head pins and earwires if you want to make earrings or pendants
Jump Rings

 

Having a kit like this around keeps your baubles blinging longer and saves the $$ you’d pay someone else to fix it or buy a replacement. You can re-string a necklace that’s snapped or re-jig dangly earrings or pendants that have been squashed out of shape. Or you can re-tool awesome jewelry you’ve thrifted but want to shorten/lengthen/strip for parts.

You can find these easily on eBay (for example) or Etsy (for example), or you might even find some of these pieces in a thrift shop after someone divests themselves of their old beading hobby supplies.

 

I made this necklace out of some found beads:

And fixed its chain with the pliers when my kid pulled too hard.

 

Same with this beaut (my Grandmother’s)–fixed the jump ring after toddler torture:

 

This necklace finally made a comeback after it was rather dramatically dismembered

From this:

To this—thank goodness I’d taken an instagram shot of it and could piece it back together in the right order:
And I’ve made these earrings (and several others I’ve passed on to friends or Goodwill when I was done with them) with random beads I’ve collected or mined from thrifted or estate sale purchases:

 

Have you ever made/remodeled jewelry? What’s your best thrifted/scavenged jewelry find? Scroll down to share!