What's in My Jewelry Box

So, generally, I'm pretty picky when it comes to jewelry.  I'm not into diamonds or bling much, and for awhile whenever I hit up my local F21, all I kept seeing as a lot of EXCESS stuff.  Do you guys know what I mean?  Just like, a lot, piled on, that it sort of became this irrelevant, artless hoarding of all the random stuff you could possibly put on a necklace.  I imagine it's like fishing, and then pulling up your net to see all of this seaweed and trash and some fish.  That is how I imagine how they brainstormed those necklaces.

Anyway, so this is what I have, necklace-wise.  They're pretty minimalist, for the most part.  For the bone/horn necklace (H&M), I just added on an extra tassel I had lying around for some extra pizzazz, and the crystal necklace lying to the right of it is DIY (I am so proud of that thing, it's crazy), made from a gnarly little rock I found in a little beachfront boutique in Maine and some copper wire. 

I am really keen on the idea of having a few go-to necklace chains and then having a bunch of pendants you can switch out whenever you feel like it.  Thus, the extra pendants I have lying around.  Some are made -- like the blue button + feather pendant, which I made from -- you guessed it -- a button and a feather, just bound together with some hot glue and a wire, as well as the red fan, which is a bead I just twisted some wire into.  The scissor pendant is a button from the local fabric store, and the dream catcher is from an old key chain of my grandmother's.

Which brings me to my next point: pliers.  Pliers!  Such a great tool to have, seriously, to have in your personal DIY kit, along with a hot glue gun (and some bullets, of course), super glue, fabric glue, fabric chalk/pencils, and needle + thread.  With those items you can never go wrong.