ANTIQUE PORCELAIN UPCYLCLED JEWELRY

Antique Porcelain Upcycled Jewelry

See the above brooch at the end of this post. 

Earrings

I love Limoges and other hard paste porcelains and I am particularly fond of hand painted pieces from the late 1800's and early 1900's.  I have a small collection of porcelain buttons and brooches and various other porcelain wearable things.  However, being antiques they do not always translate very well into our wearable art of today.  With that thought in mind, after many years of displaying some of my pieces, I have decided to incorporate them into my jewelry collection so that I can actually wear them.  I will have to be very careful with them but I do want the option to be able to wear them and show them off.  

The first project I tackled was to make a beautiful pair of earrings into pierced earrings so that I can wear them.  The earrings were on brass findings and they were screw on earrings.  Can you even imagine wearing something like that, yes it hurts, I tried it.   So having purchased a pair of porcelain cabochons recently and using a 2 part epoxy to make earrings, I thought maybe I should do this to my antique earrings.  I know others may say never do this but it is not for the monetary value that I have these beautiful things, so I took the plunge and I made myself an upcycled pair of earrings.  

Here is what I did to make them wearable. 

I will of course save the brass backings and should I ever need to, I can convert them back to the way I found them. 

I think they are lovely and I can't wait to wear them. 

Necklace

I also wanted to upcycle my antique shank buttons however, I in no way wanted to alter them.  So I had to come up with a way to make wearable art out them that would not damage them.  I wanted them to remain in their original state. Having shanks on them makes it easy to "button" them on to things, so I decided I could make a necklace and a brooch that would allow them to be "buttoned" on and off.  

Here are some of my hand painted antique porcelain button shanks. 

My favorite ones are the one's with the pink and red roses on them.  These are just the most beautiful tiny pieces of art. 

Here they are paired with the flower assortment that I used in my necklace. 

Here is what I did.....

And here is my new Button Shank Necklace

I can wear it with any of my button shanks and should I collect more in the future, they will work as well. 

Brooch

My next project was a Brooch.  I made this using lace, elastic and a pin back.  At first I was going to use a large pin back but then I realized, I needed a small one so that I could push the button through the opening in the elastic. 

And here is my new brooch all finished.  I added a pink ribbon to it and this helps to hold the button shank on more securely. 

Here is is with a Bavarian hard paste porcelain hand painted tea pot. 

Now I have some beautiful pieces of jewelry that I can use with my antique hand painted hard paste porcelain items and I am a happy girl!!!

See you soon with some new fabric doll ideas.
 Until then happy crafting. 

Hugs, Beverly
Tea Cottage Pretties