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May. 8th, 2022 09:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
camwynSome time back my brother-in-law pinged me to ask if I could attempt jewelry repair for him. He had a bracelet my sister had given him, and it broke due to family dog. One of the beads went missing and the official repair people couldn't get him a new one. Did I think I had a chance at fixing it. I said I'd give it a try.
Bracelet arrived, bead in question was stainless steel with grooves like lines of latitude. Beads were 8mm or so in diameter. Did not find any such beads myself, all stainless steel beads with grooves had them engraved longitudinally, making them look faintly like melons. Found a silver bead seller that offered latitude engraved beads but theirs were 11 mm, and when they arrived they were so much visibly bigger than the others that it just would've been weird. Tried looking up the bracelet on eBay in case anyone was selling parts of a broken one, did not find any, did however find the price and the picture of the original. Contacted BiL, told him I could try subbing in a different engraved design altogether if he was open to it, got the OK, bought two TierraCast oxidized silver beads and swapped them in for one stainless bead, one missing bead.
Original plan was to glue his chain back into the magnetic clasp with E6000 or two-part epoxy. Could not get the chain in far enough to feel comfortable. Bought crimps, jump rings, completely different pair of magnetic clasps instead.
The bracelet is intact and he loves it with the repairs but of all the things that could have gone wrong and troubles I could have encountered along the way, I did not see my chain-nose plier handle snapping right off while squeezing a crimp tube as one of the potential issues with this project.
oh well. I bought it at Michaels years ago because it was cheap. I'll be asking the bead store in Boston to please point me at a good quality chain nose for a reasonable price, and making due with my other pliers (maybe the bent chain-nose ones will sub for now) in the meantime.
Bracelet arrived, bead in question was stainless steel with grooves like lines of latitude. Beads were 8mm or so in diameter. Did not find any such beads myself, all stainless steel beads with grooves had them engraved longitudinally, making them look faintly like melons. Found a silver bead seller that offered latitude engraved beads but theirs were 11 mm, and when they arrived they were so much visibly bigger than the others that it just would've been weird. Tried looking up the bracelet on eBay in case anyone was selling parts of a broken one, did not find any, did however find the price and the picture of the original. Contacted BiL, told him I could try subbing in a different engraved design altogether if he was open to it, got the OK, bought two TierraCast oxidized silver beads and swapped them in for one stainless bead, one missing bead.
Original plan was to glue his chain back into the magnetic clasp with E6000 or two-part epoxy. Could not get the chain in far enough to feel comfortable. Bought crimps, jump rings, completely different pair of magnetic clasps instead.
The bracelet is intact and he loves it with the repairs but of all the things that could have gone wrong and troubles I could have encountered along the way, I did not see my chain-nose plier handle snapping right off while squeezing a crimp tube as one of the potential issues with this project.
oh well. I bought it at Michaels years ago because it was cheap. I'll be asking the bead store in Boston to please point me at a good quality chain nose for a reasonable price, and making due with my other pliers (maybe the bent chain-nose ones will sub for now) in the meantime.
