Biker Chic - part four of a Girl and her SHOES series!

Welcome to part four of  "a Girl and her SHOES" series. If you missed the original post, you may want to check it out here to see what inspired this series.

Perhaps it is from growing up with three older brothers, but I have to admit...I do have a little bit of bad girl in me! A pair of leather studded boots adorned with buckles are my go-to winter shoes, so of course I would want the same in my jewelry!

Today my shoe makeovers are going Biker Chic!

 The shoes. A thrifted pair of clogs with cool studded straps and rings.

Not my size but those straps were definitely Biker Chic material!

Crystal Biker Chic

 I used the strap from one of the shoes to make Crystal Biker Chic. I cut one of the strips away from the strap so that I would have three strips. I attached a ring to the end of one of the strips and hung a couple of crystal nuggets from it. The last step was to attach a small ring to each remaining strap and add a copper chain and handmade hook clasp.

 Pearl Biker Chic

 I used the strap from the second shoe to make Pearl Biker Chic.  I cut two

of the strips away from the strap. I wired on green freshwater pearls and

finished it with a copper chain and a handmade hook clasp.

Crystals and pearls...a little bit good. Studded leather...a little bit bad. A perfect combination for any biker chick!

Confession: The closest thing I have to a bike is... well, a bicycle but I still love leather!

I have two more shoe-to-jewelry reveals to go. I hope you will return to see them.

 

Dressed Up Pearls - part three of a Girl and her SHOES series!

Welcome to part three of "a Girl and her SHOES" series. If you missed the original post, you may want to check it out here to see what inspired this series.

Wow! It's almost the end of October and the holiday season is soon to arrive. One of my favorite bonuses of the holidays has to be the parties!! I look forward to slipping on my favorite black cocktail dress and fancying up my hair. Yep, dressing up is just plain fun!

So what about the plain-jane strand of faux pearls I inherited from my Grandma?

I decided it could benefit from a little dressing up too!

The shoes. Just a fairly average pair of sandals that I picked up for next to nothing at the thrift store but I was attracted to the leather flowers and knew they had potential.

I already had the vintage faux pearl necklace. It was not perfect;
it was missing a strand but I used it anyway! I love the vintage clasp.

 

This make over could not have been any easier. I just cut the flowers off the shoes,

glued them together in a row, glued earrings (from my stash that I never wear)

at each flower center and then wired the entire piece to the pearl strands.

They can be removed at any time...nothing permanent.

Grandma wouldn't recognize her pearls - they're all dressed up and ready for the party!

I hope you will return and check out the next shoe redoux in my "a Girl and her SHOES" series!

Geometry - part two of a Girl and her SHOES series!!

Welcome to part two of  "a Girl and her SHOES" series. If you missed the original post, you may want to check it out here to see what inspired this series.

I'm calling these two designs Geometry because the leather shapes

of the shoes that I re-purposed them from reminded me of a trapezoid.

That's about all I remember from my geometry class all those many years ago!

The shoes. Very cute but not my size.

Turquoise Geometry

Turquoise  Geometry was inspired by a vintage earring that had belonged to my grandmother. I think it looks beautiful against the chocolate brown leather.

All that was needed to complete this designs was the addition of a few

rough cut turquoise nuggets, a copper chain and a handmade hook clasp.

 Golden Geometry

Golden Geometry was super fast and easy to make. I already had this beaded chain in my stash pile. It's okay but a little boring for my taste so I decided to dress it up with a leather pendant. I just attached the leather pendant to one of the oval links of the chain. It still needed a little more so I removed a few beaded links from the necklace and attached
them as dangles from the pendant. It doesn't get any easier than that!

I hope you'll return for part three of  "a Girl and her SHOES" series!

Featured at The Artsy Girl Connection

a Girl and her SHOES!

What is it about a girl and her shoes? We want them! We need them!! We have to have them!!! But what do we do when we find that perfect pair at a garage sale or thrift store (only a dollar or two) and, darn! wrong size? Pass up a cute pair of shoes?...I think not!

My solution...make them into a necklace!

A little crazy? Maybe! And yet, I've created some designs that I would never have imagined otherwise and they are completely unique!

 This design called Autumn Leaves began with these sandals that I found at a thrift store.

I painted the suede leaves to up the luxury value

and embellished them with lustrous pearls.

 I finished the piece off with a copper chain and a handmade hook clasp.

Over the next couple of days I will be sharing more of my shoe-licious leather creations. I hope you will return and check them out!

Sharing with: Not Just A Housewife: Show Me What Ya Got

Featured at I Gotta Create

Road Trip - Junk to Jewelry

Over the past several years the wonderful world of jewelry has been expanding its boundaries. Creating jewelry from found objects seems to be the new trend. One benefit of designing jewelry this way is that each item created is a completely unique piece loaded with character and most likely will never be exactly replicated. I love reusing old discarded objects - junk so to speak - and perusing through thrift stores, looking at unlikely items and wondering how I can transform them into wearable art .

I named this piece Road Trip. I think that's appropriate for a couple of reasons. First (and most obvious)...it reminds me of an old clunky pickup that has traveled many miles of road over its long, tough and dependable life. Second...it was my first mixed media jewelry creation and it represents a new journey and direction that I look forward to exploring.

This road trip began with the following thrift store finds:

denim overalls, a gauge, and old cash register buttons from a mechanics garage

The gauge was a little hard to disassemble. I removed the casing and discovered that the metal face was riveted to the lower metal piece. When I asked Hubby to cut it apart for me he replied, as any man would, "You ruined a perfectly good gauge!"

Once all the parts and pieces were disassembled, it was time to make them look like they had spent years out on the road. I added some "rust" with brown acrylic paint.

It looked good but still not quite right.  It was perfect though, once I added a layer

of metallic copper spray paint.

I put all the bits and pieces together and filled the gauge/bezel with Ice resin. I used packing tape to back the buckle/clasp thingy, filled it with resin and added the gas, oil and chg buttons. After the resin was set, I added a zipper (from the same pair of overalls).

A handmade copper chain consisting of funky links was added

bringing this piece to its final destination!

This rivet has the no boundaries trade mark...very appropriate for this project!

I'm happy to say that this piece came together without any major roadblocks!

Take a road trip  from the usual - it's amazing what you can create with no boundaries!

Featured at Lil Pink Pocket

Sharing at: Funky Junk Interiors: SNS Best of 2011 Junk Project , One Artsy Mama: Shine on Fridays, I Gotta Create: The Mother Lode

Happy Creating!

Kathy