Wendy Brandes Jewelry Blog

Never Is the Next New Thing

An Easy Redesign: Pendant to Single Earring

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I enjoy redesigning old jewelry. If it’s not being worn as is, why not figure out a way to use it again? That’s what I did for myself recently, though, to be fair, it is more a repurposing than a redesign because the change was so simple. I had a black-and-white diamond pendant left over from the inventory of my first jewelry company — the one I had with my late business partner. The pendant isn’t like anything I design now, so it was languishing in a safe. I am, however, very enthused for single earrings of all styles and it suddenly occurred to me that this pendant would make a great single earring.

Here’s a close-up of the piece, post-conversion. The orange blur in the background is FitzRoy the cat photobombing me.

earringcloseupblack

Here’s how it looks on. I like to wear it next to a small black diamond hoop that I made this year.

earring

I’ve worn the new-old earring nearly every day since converting it. That’s after not wearing the pendant for eight years. It’s never too late to make something great! In fact, I found another pendant from that time in my jewelry career, and I’m converting that one too. It’s onyx and white gold, and I think it will complement the diamond earring nicely.

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Comments

  1. Wendy,
    This is amazing. I love it and would wear it all the time, too. Are those black diamond hoops for sale? I was just wondering, is there a price point considered too small to redo? I have a $400 diamond circle necklace but I don’t really like it. Would a jeweler laugh me outta the store if I wanted it redone? Anyway, great designs and I love your blog as always. Catherine

    • I wouldn’t laugh you out of the store! Trust me, you want me to do your redesigns. Right now I’m redesigning pieces that were already redesigned! The customers weren’t satisfied wit the work. Email me at wbjewelry at hotmail dot com. And I can do the black diamond hoops for $1500. 🙂

  3. So cool as an earring! And it puts me in mind of your 80’s looks. So it’s a re-designed, re-purposed, up-scaled Throwback. It checks all the boxes!

  4. I love black Diamonds so much! They are so elegant yet nontraditional. Of course I love contrast of all kinds & especially the pop of putting B & W diamonds next to each other. =)

    That pendant is beautiful & it looks equally fantastic as a single earring. It would look great with the vintage B & W Moschino dress you wore last week.

    Have a stylin’ day as always, Wendy!

    Beth xoxo

  6. I love the pendant/earring! can you do more posts about your “old” designs? It would be so cool to see your transition…I almost can’t imagine you designing anything other than the badass dictator-queen/emoticon stuff you got going on now.

    I love your posts about your 80s jewelry too!