New bracelet, old bracelet

I've had a set of grey beads languishing in my beads-for-sale bowl for a few weeks now and for some reason I woke up and decided that I wanted to make them into a bracelet, so that is what I did.

I put the lampwork beads with some Czech crystal rondelles in a beautiful misty blue-grey colour, and some ever so pretty pale grey Swarovski glass pearls which have a very subtle shimmer.

The resulting bracelet reminds me of stormy skies so I've named this one 'Cumulonimbus' which is the proper term for a thundercloud.

The bracelet is in my shop as I type.

You know that sunflower-inspired bracelet I made the other day? Well, the charm on it reminded me of a bracelet that I've had in my jewellery box for twenty-five years but that I never wear. It was a gift from my mum and she brought it back for me from a holiday in France. Mum, Dad and my two sisters went camping there and I stayed at home because I was nearly twenty and I hated the idea of camping (I still do and I intend to avoid it forever) plus we'd not long had our cat Buster (bless his stripy heart; I still miss him and think of him every day) so I stayed at home to look after him and the house. I can recall all this very well because it was 1997 and Princess Diana died on the day everyone was coming back from France.

Anyway, the bracelet. It's a very simple metal one made up of sunflower-shaped links. I don't know what the metal is but it's definitely not silver and it's quite heavy. It's got a tiny little bit of blue-green tarnish in a couple of places.

After I fished the bracelet out the other day I replaced its flimsy jump rings with sturdy stainless steel ones and I gave it a new clasp too. Maybe I'll get a bit of wear out of it now I know it's not going to fall apart.
 

I do enjoy a bit of jewellery renovation. I've repaired and renovated quite a few bits of jewellery for other people over the years and the pieces have never been expensive or lavish. So often the jewellery pieces we love are from our youth, or were gifts from people who are no longer here. They might not be worth a lot money-wise but they are priceless nonetheless. I've often considered offering a jewellery repair service. Maybe I should sort a page out for the website? Yes, I'm going to add it to my to do list.

Speaking of sunflowers, I'll leave you with this photo of my 'micro' sunflowers.

The plants just keep blooming and one of my three currently has nine flowers open on it. Joyful!