Upcycled Necklace - Beau Belle

I finished this a few days ago.   Sometimes, when I go to an antique fair I get so excited I almost faint - finding this gorgeous marcasite-set enamelled brooch was one such occasion.   It doesn't seem like vandalism to me to take off the back of a brooch and make it into something else, especially as everyone is wearing bows at the moment - I went down to our local shopping mall (the huge Trafford Centre) to see everyone, the world, his wife and their sister wearing great huge drippy trails of outsize faux pearls and bows, I know, its been in for ages.  I don't really do outsize jewellery all that much - with all the fashion in right now, the colours, the shapes, its so reminiscent of the 1980's when I was a kid - and I've only just got over that.  

Anyway, I digress.  I've had this piece on my desk for ages, and I knew exactly what I was going to do with it but just hadn't got round to it - mainly because I was having difficulties locating the right shade of green freshwater pearls for it - having said that, trawling through my bead boxes turned up these, and I thought I was going to use dark metallic Keishi pearls but ended up using this softer grey instead.   The piece is made to be worn asymmetrically - that is, with the bow to one side and with the clasp showing - why put on a great expensive sterling silver and marcasite clasp if you're going to hide it at the back.

Amazingly, the bow stays exactly where it was put - I know this because I couldn't resist test-driving the piece whilst down at the Trafford Centre and I near enough got mugged for it in Monsoon and Molton Brown, though its always nice to have pieces admired.    The lady in Monsoon was telling me she made clothes -- its a pity we don't all wear t-shirts saying what we like to do, because I'm sure we'd make some great friends....anyway, hope you like the pics.