My Redesigning Oscars Jewelry Set

A Bit of the Bubbly Necklace Copyright 2010 Margot Potter

After the Oscars this year, I posted about the dearth of fabulous necklaces and a German manufacturer of extraordinary clasps called Claspgarten.  They sent me a generous sampling of clasps and I finally had some free time to work on a design yesterday.  I found some vintage oversized faux pearl multi-strand necklaces at my local Goodwill a few months back and I took them apart to repurpose at a later date.  The pearls featured in this design are a smattering of what I scored.  I've added CRYSTALLIZED-Swarovski elements beads as end caps to solve the problem of the large pearl holes and to add a little sparkle that speaks back to the clasp.  This clasp is so gorgeous it simply had to be the focal element.

I played with very traditional Bridal sort of concept and then I decided I wanted to give this a more Justin Giunta Subversive inspired edge.  So out came the pearls and the chains and away went the precious idea of knots and perfect strands.  I would have gone with a more asymmetrical vibe or added pearls around the entire bottom chain row, but that would have taken away too much focus from the clasp.  After some prototype versions, I ended up with what I'm calling a vintage modern design.  I'm quite pleased with this one.  The chains and findings are all base metal and created by Beadalon.

(Note: The new materials used in this design were donated to the blogger, the faux pearls were a thrift store purchase.)