Vintage Jewelry Christmas Ornaments

This afternoon I got together with some friends to learn how to make ornaments with vintage jewelry odds and ends.

My friend Barbara has taken several classes and was kind enough to offer her expertise. She is an accomplished craftswoman, an avid collector and a wonderful seamstress and embroiderer. She showed us boxes and boxes of lovely vintage jewelry and prisms that she has collected over the years.

Her creations, displayed on three small trees in her dining room were so pretty. We were working with 24 & 28 gauge silver and gold wires. Learning all the techniques would obviously take more time than we had today, but we were happy to complete a half dozen ornaments each.

Two of mine featured teapots and will be hung on my dining room tabletop tea tree.

The little angel with the prism body was quite a challenge. Her little wings are rather misshapen, but she is still cute. The ornaments are all rather slender, since I didn't have any large jewelry pieces and was working mostly with beads. I will be on the lookout for new crafting materials now when I stop at local yard sales.

It really was fun to chat with friends, drink tea and get creative.