Chain! Chain! Chain! and JemsGems

I started making my necklaces three years ago. I had collected vintage jewelry, including necklaces, for a long time. I admired the materials and designs used. I never wear "real" jewelry (it's not appropriate where I work) and I like to reuse and recycle whenever I can, so vintage seemed perfect. Except for the fact that the vintage necklaces were fragile, or heavy or tacky or uncomfortable (Choker? Really?). I collected them but never wore them. So I started taking apart some of the damaged ones and re-fashioning them into long, light, casual, slip-on necklaces that I did (and still do) wear!

When I ran out of old, broken pieces, I began to search for vintage materials on the internet. For a while, I was able to find many old, tangled lots of chains and beads for affordable prices. Recently, those lots are harder to find and much more expensive (I still luck out at garage and yard sales). So I started looking for sellers of unused vintage beads and found several that I now buy from.

Vintage chain was a bigger problem. The variety of colors in the silvertone and goldtone metal chains used in vintage jewelry ia amazing. It was hard for me to put together chain sections that matched each other and then I had to find contemporary findings, like jump rings, that matched the metal as well. So, I began searching on the internet for purveyors (I've always wanted to use that word in a sentence!) of unused vintage chain. And I found JemsGems (a fellow etsier) who carries large amounts of some of the most amazing unused vintage chain I've ever seen.

I have recently made several purchases from the shop and created new pieces. I have started using the same chain in these necklaces, giving them a more polished, less eclectic feel (but I still go crazy with the beads;)).

Vintage Raw Steel Chain became Through a Glass Darkly Necklace

Unusual Vintage Brass Chain became Lady of the Harbor Necklace

So check out JemsGems for a great selection of unusual, affordable vintage (and non-vintage) jewelry supplies.

Your order will arrive quickly and be packed well too!

BUT Please leave some chain for me!