From the Repair Desk: How To Turn Pierced Earrings into Clip Earrings

We get this request a lot. Sometimes it is very easy, just remove the clip top and add the dangle to a clip top. Boom!

Other times, not so easy. 

When that happens, when a pair of earrings has an integrated post on a fancy top, we use a secret that I want to let you know about. The product Crystal Clay is perfect for filling in and attaching a clip where a post used to be. 

This two-part clay is easy to mix and can be placed in the space vacated by a snipped-off post. The pads for clip on earrings will attach nicely to the clay and we haven't found ANYTHING it does not hold, super-tight.

In the case of these earrings, we removed the post and the small bar that had been soldered in to hold the post in place using wire cutters. We then rolled a very small amount of Crystal Clay into a small ball (one for each earring) and then placed the clip finding in the space. We used a clip finding with a small ball atop the bar for this specific pair of earrings as the back of the earring was dented in a bit and the ball sat nicely in the space, held by the Crystal Clay.

We always allow the Crystal Clay to dry for 24 hours before giving the repair back to the customer. 

Some Crystal Clay tips: 

• ALWAYS wear the gloves, this stuff isn't deadly, but it isn't good for you either.
• Put down waxed paper to work on to keep the clay from getting on your table.
• Keep the clay OFF sparkles, stones, crystal and metal you aren't sticking to anything. It can be a bit hard to remove small bits of it, so neatness counts.
• The metallic colors aren't THAT metallic, so keep that in mind when you are planning the repair. The color we used, Gold, wasn't all that Gold, but it was all discretely hidden behind the earring top so it didn't matter MUCH. My favorite all-around color is the copper, It kinda looks like most metals. Kinda.
• Use the product sparingly. It does not take much. 
• The product ages and has a 'best used before' date on the package. We find that it works just fine for another six months to a year, but if you are interested in trying some NOW we've got a bit of it on sale that is marked down due to age. It will still work just fine for you, and you can try it at a huge discount! Click here to see the colors available. 

(note, this offer is only good until the 'past date' product sells out, so if you are interested, act fast!) 

From The Repair Desk - Rewiring A Beaded Collar

We are starting a new feature here on the blog, From The Repair Desk. While we often have the opportunity to do repairs on amazing costume jewelry here at our store in Raleigh, we rarely get to show off the fabulous pieces we repair. We decided you needed to see what we were seeing, and maybe our write-ups about the repairs will help you in your own costume jewelry repair. 

This project came to us from a Raleigh native who admits she LOVES this piece. This dramatic beaded collar is made of several layers of Czech glass tubes and seed beads, with freshwater pearls mixed in. The entire piece was woven out of very thin-gauge wire (we estimate it at a 30 gauge!) so it is very flexible. If you've ever used very fine wire, you do know that flexible can also equal fragile. This lovely piece lost the central pearl as you can see in the top picture. We were able to re-attach the pearl using a bit of 28 gauge wire, laced through and knotted onto the other wires.

This is a contemporary necklace, but the design reminds me of several pieces from Mid-Century designers such as Miriam Haskell. A simple technique, used with elaborate layering. 

This is the back of the necklace. You can see the basic pattern of the beading here. It is my opinion that this design was built up from the back, starting with this layer and then adding the smaller beads on the second layer.

These two shots show the spot where the pearl was missing. The crystal beads were wrapped around the pearl using wire, and then there was a wire threaded through the large pearls to attach them to the base collar.


While doing this repair we also looked carefully at the other bead joints for damage or wear. Working with thin wire can be dicey...too many twists and it breaks, quickly. While we didn't find any other joints that were compromised, we can't guarantee that one won't break in the future. I'll instruct the wearer to be cautious about wearing this piece of costume jewelry on her next mountain climbing outing.

This piece illustrates a principle of elaborate costume jewelry that is often forgotten by contemporary makers. The construction method on this is really fairly simple - just wire woven back and forth through groupings of beads. There is not a base or structure underlying the beading, the beading IS the structure. This kind of work requires a trained artisan working under the supervision of a designer. It's not really big factory work because the beads and pearls don't fit together exactly each time. As a whole, it looks amazing, and it is amazing. Often, our contemporary costume pieces, mass-produced in factories in 10 color ways, are constructed over specially manufactured findings. This means that YOU couldn't make one yourself. With the construction in this piece, just wire and beads, it can easily be reproduced by anyone with enough beads and enough time...by YOU!

This necklace was a joy to repair. Once it was finished I imagined it gracing the neck of our customer at her next gala...