Upcycling old jewelry

I belong to a forum on Ravelry, From Trash to Treasures, and our March challenge was to use something second hand and make it into something else.  So now I had a mission and a good swift kick in the pants to get busy taking my inherited jewelry and making it into something I can wear, or more specifically something I would wear!  The jewelry comes from both my mother and my mother-in-law.  My mother had big gaudy jewelry and my mother-in-law had little dainty, almost prissy jewelry.  Both a reflection of the person.  So I used a coral choker necklace that was  strung on black string and had hemp ties, and a big Native American inspired brooch.  I raided my bead and findings stash to come up with the other components. After much playing and changing this and redoing that, I came up with a new necklace.  Now, not everyone likes big jewelry….but I love it!  So here are pictures of the before and after:

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