Dishfunctional Designs: Lovebirds Broken China Jewelry Necklace with Gemstone Chain

Necessity is the mother of invention, and let me tell you, I have had growing stacks of teacups for years that were in great need of reinvention. To me, that was necessity.

Chipped, cracked, orphaned, broken, often received in box-lots of old china accrued over the years—and like all of my other china pieces, kept and stacked and moved with me and moved again—they waited.

A teacup is a difficult piece of china to work with when making jewelry—if you make your jewelry by hand as I do, cutting it with traditional hand tools along with a few more modern cutting tools—still all done by hand and without automation, it's up to me to get the job done, and just precisely right.

For years I've made bracelets with broken teacups. I loved how the natural curve of a piece of china cut from a teacup fit nicely on the curve of a wrist—but being worn on a wrist can sometimes cause rough wear for a more delicate piece of china, since bracelets are exposed to much more movement than a necklace. After all, they were initially created for gentle tea drinking and not as a fashion accessory! So I always take into consideration the thickness and durability of the china piece before fashioning it into a bracelet.

[Learn how to make your own broken teacup bracelet in my book, Boho Chic Jewelry, in project, You Crack Me Up Teacup Bracelet, page 46]

A beautiful broken teacup transforms wonderfully into a statement necklace. These larger shards of china often display larger images of the china pattern, sometimes with more detail and always with a delicate slight curve.

Because these are special, unique pieces, they deserve extra special treatment! I put a lot of time and love into transforming them into necklaces, scouring through box after box of gemstone beads to find the perfect compliment to the china pattern's colors. I thoughtfully choose each bead and carefully wrap each by hand in silver wire, linking them together one at a time, and then finishing the beaded chain off with a length of pretty sterling silver chain.

I love the way this necklace turned out! The lovebirds pattern shows two sweet yellow and green birds (parakeets? Budgies?) sitting inside of an open blue heart with tiny white daises, with a pink ribbon bow and smaller pink flowers in the center of the heart.

With a total length of 30 inches (76.2 cm), this is a longer styled piece, and the hand-beaded chain includes pearls, Moonstone, Amazonite, Rose Quartz, Phrenite, Pink Rhodonite, Angelite, and Blue Aventurine.