Monthly Archives: September 2018

An earring to pendant conversion

A while back I found a round post earring in a charity shop. It was a single earring so therefore not the most easy thing to sell on. Also, I don’t wear earrings so if I wanted to actually wear this, I’d have to convert it to something else. So I hit on the idea of turning it into a pendant, like this:

All I had to do was gently bend the post at the back using a pair of chain nose pliers, to form a bale (see below for pic showing the back of the earring). The great thing about this particular pendant is its hidden bale, which means that the pendant doesn’t hang far below the level of the necklace/chain; you can therefore wear it with high-necked tops without worrying whether it’s going to disappear below your neckline. Winner.

This isn’t the only earring to pendant conversion I’ve done in this way – I will dig out the other one and put it on here some time.

Czech silver ring

I’ve had this ring in my personal collection for about ten years, and have always thought that it dated from the 1920s. (It has an Art Deco kind of feel to it, well I think so anyway!) I used to wear the ring a lot, but sadly the advancing years have made my fingers swell, to the point where it no longer fits. I never really looked at the hallmarks closely until today – I remember that one of them was a 900 for 900 parts per thousand of silver, showing that it was almost certainly made in continental Europe. Getting the magnifier out, I found that the other mark was a rabbit’s head and the number 3. A quick search led to this forum discussion:

https://www.smpub.com/ubb/Forum7/HTML/000136.html

It would appear that my ring is Czech in origin. And it isn’t Art Deco at all but probably dates from the 1960s, when the rabbit hallmark was reintroduced in Czechoslovakia after a 34 year hiatus. So if you see a rabbit hallmark on a piece of silver, then look to Central Europe.

PS: Below is my attempt at taking a close-up picture:

Lost and found. And on sale: 25% off

Tonight I’ve just spent a very fraught two hours turning our workroom/office upside down. Why? Because I’d lost this beauty pictured above. In case you didn’t know, it’s by Finnish modernist designer Karl Laine and is available in my shop. I’d decided to photograph it on my phone so that I could use the picture to advertise my upcoming sale (more of which below) on Etsy Updates. My pendants are all kept in a box, but the Karl Laine pendant wasn’t amongst them. It wasn’t in the box where I keep necklaces and larger pendants either. It hadn’t fallen behind any bits of furniture, although I did find several other items there that I thought had been lost forever. Eventually I found it … in the old shoe box where I keep our envelopes. Wut.

Anyway, the sale is 25% off all orders over £8, and is on till this Sunday, September 9th.