Friday 17 January 2020

A Crafting Question

I have spent quite some time altering this bracelet (and for once I have before and after photos!).

It's a lovely beaded bracelet, but on close inspection, several of the charms were damaged or had damaged connectors and there were also places where charms had obviously fallen off in the past. In addition, it was very short, so short that it didn't even fit round my wrist (I've got very slim wrists).

So I removed all the damaged charms, replaced them with charms from my stash, added more charms where previous ones had fallen off and added an extension chain at the end to allow people with normal sized wrists to wear it. Here's the final result

So the question is, would you describe this as a refurbished vintage bracelet or a handmade upcycled bracelet?

Let me know what you think in the comments!

4 comments:

Lowcarb team member said...

It looks a very nice refurbished vintage bracelet to me :)

All the best Jan

Nico said...

Hi Juliet, I'd say it is a handmade upcycled bracelet. Looks lovely!

Gershon Ben-Avraham said...

Juliet, according to my Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (11th edition), refurbish means "to brighten or freshen up." It gives "renovate" as a synonym. The same dictionary defines "renovate" as "to restore to a former better state (as by cleaning, repairing, or rebuilding.)" Given these definitions, and based upon what you've done, I would describe the bracelet as a "refurbished vintage bracelet." All the best!

Crafty Green Poet said...

Thanks for your opinions everyone and for your dictionary definition Gershon! My friends on Facebook seem to think it's a handmade upcycled bracelet. Personally I think it's refurbished vintage, but there are enough new elements in it that it's quite tricky to really know how to define it.