Should you throw away the damaged necklace? Or can you Fix it? Or, can you Upcycle it into big profit? Let’s find out!

Necklaces are a good damaged item to have because there’s lots of options as opposed to something like a broken ceramic pot, which leaves you with very few options. Let’s look at the parts of a necklace:

Now let’s discuss what you can do, depending on what is damaged:

CAN IT BE FIXED? DAMAGED CLASPS

If the clasp just needs replacement, this is super simple. You can buy replacement clasps cheap on Amazon. This is a cool replacement kit because it has all different colors

:

But if the clasp is the type that there is no way to replace it because it is actually welded into the chain, then you can decide if you want to replace the entire chain or Upcycle the charm. If you want to replace the chain, you can also buy these pretty cheap

CHARMS

Charms are the easiest thing to replace. You can get all different kinds of charms so cheap these days! Check out just a couple quick examples from Amazon Prime:

100 Charms for UNDER $6!

These charms are about $1.20 a piece:

Natural Stone Charms - 30 pieces for about $14:

There’s seriously soooo many different Charm Lots for sale on Amazon that you can absolutely find what you need, cheap, to sell your beautiful necklace chain!

NO WAY TO FIX OR REPAIR - IF IT’S GENUINELY “RUINED”

First, NEVER immediately throw out jewelry that appears imperfect. But IF there is absolutely nothing you can do with the damaged item, ALWAYS remove:

• Clasps
• Hooks
• Gems
• Embellishments
• Even embellishments MISSING GEMS can still be repurposed!
• Or other materials that can be used to crease something else prior to throwing away the rest

****IF the destroyed item is GENUINE METAL(.925 sterling silver, gold, etc), NEVER THROW IT AWAY. You can sell these metals no matter what condition they are in! If you want to get rid of them fast, just take them to a pawn shop or a jeweler.

UPCYCLING

If you have already dissected your necklace and it is now in pieces, your final option is to upcycle the charm(s), gemstones or whatever else you have extracted from the necklace.

One of my fav projects is making decor:

Here's a mega simple bottle I made for my living room using nothing more than an anchor charm and cheap jute:

You can get jute on Amazon much cheaper than anywhere else.  This massive roll is under $6:

AND, this same Jute can also be used for your Christmas Gift Wrapping for your online orders! Also, I have glued directly to the bottle because the rest of the jewelry was unusable. Also, wherever missing stones are, I glue another piece on top of it to hide the imperfections and also create “depth” via a “layered look”. Here’s a website with some really fantastic ideas for you. But yesterday we shared with you 5 really fantastic projects for charms, here they are again in case you missed them:

In my opinion, the absolute easiest project for totally broken earrings (or charms / pendants) is art. Photo frames, shadow boxes, trinket cases, etc.

Amazon has a 6 pack of pretty darn nice 4x6” photo frames for under $13:

4x6 is a good size if you have a couple handfuls of jewelry and some paint. Ribbon, lace, glitter, gems and other stuff also makes great embellishments. If you have a box full of parts you might want to opt for 5x7” ($15) or 8x10” ($23). Keep in mind that 8x10” is 38” total length of edge to cover, not counting the width of the edge. That’s over 3 FEET of jewelry & embellishments you will need. Alternatively, you could paint the frame and bedazzle only a portion.

But, if you don’t have enough damaged pieces to decorate something, here’s a couple options that involve only a piece or two of broken earrings:

AMAZING BOOKMARKS

These are seriously so cool that I plan to make some!

Amazon has a huge 500 pack of excellent quality bookmark bases:

Turn Broken Earrings into AWESOME COCKTAIL RINGS!

Rings are super simple to make. You can buy the base online cheap (40 pieces of adjustable rings for under $14):

QUICK NOTE: Many people have reactions to fashion jewelry (their finger turns green while they are wearing it). A mega-simple solution is to coat the inside of the ring with clear nail polish. I personally have to do this with all of my fashion rings. It 100% solves the problem. This is the exact clear polish I use (2 pack for under $10):

Cutest-EVER Fridge Magnets

Grab 36 magnets for under $10!

I have used a lot of pendants to make keychains / purse charms. They’re super simple to make and seller GREAT online, especially if the jewelry says “Lucky Brand” or “Betsey Johnson” or whatever on it.

VERY IMPORTANT TIPS

A lot of people recommend using “jewelry glue”. Personally, I am not a fan of it. I have upcycled tons of stuff, damn near my entire life and my go-to for ALL projects is always (no exceptions) Power Grab CLEAR (make sure it says CLEAR!!!):

If you want to apply it to small things, use some cheap paint brushes from Amazon

Keep in mind that it’s not easy to wash Power Grab out of paint brushes, so it’s usually best to do a lot of gluing at one time then plan on discarding the paint brush.

OR grab toothpicks. I specifically prefer this style because it is easiest to hold (and mega cheap):

If you want to make a Monogram letter to sell, the Most Popular First Name Letters in the USA for boys and girls is “A” (2015 - 2017 data).