Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Time to untangle


Like most women, I appreciate a beautiful piece of jewelry.
I totally get why that accessories store in the mall is named "Icing".
I figured out long ago that a pretty necklace with a nice belt and some heels can turn jeans and a t-shirt into presentable, even "you look good today" clothes! This is after all, my work uniform.

I have quite a few necklaces. Some were souvenirs of travel, some were gifts. I inherited several from my grandmothers and picked a few off estate sales from other people's grandmothers. I love a good 75% of them, but only wear the same three or four over and over. Why? Because despite my best efforts over the years, I always had a tangled up mess of chains and beads.

I have hung them on the backs of doors. I've laid them flat in drawers. I've tried jewlery boxes. Last, I used a "necklace tree". Nothing was perfect. Most attempts created a knotted mess. The necklace tree had two problems - it didn't hold enough AND it was too short, so the chains pooled at the bottom.

Lately, surfing Pinterest, I began feeling creative. A lot of people have the same problem and have soved it with a custom hanger. Right up my alley. I had been thinking for a while about using a cute multi-key hook I found, but it still didn't hold enough. Plus, I really like how those other clever pinners on Pintrest made theirs look like art.

After some pondering, here is my solution. It was easy and fits my needs perfectly.
 I used:
- one 11x18 picture frame with glass front.
- two pieces of scrap booking paper (but you could also use wall paper remnants, photos, etc).
- 15 Coomand brand removable mini- hooks.

In my mind, clear hooks were perfect, but I forgot about the white adhesive strip. So, I guess I could leave it as is and call it "adjustable for future needs", or now that I know where I want them, I could pull them off and super-glue them in place to get rid of the white strip. I'll think about it.

I hung the finished project and use it for my chain necklaces. I'm going to live with it for awhile with the ugly white strips.  Once I'm sure I have the spacing right for my necklaces, I'll go back and clean it up (see below).
The leftover "necklace tree" is perfect for bracelets and my shorter, chunkier granny bead necklaces.
I love it.





Follow up: 
After living with it awhile, I decided I did indeed have the spacing right for my necklaces.  I then went back, removed the ugly white strips and permanently adhered the hooks with some super glue.  
A much cleaner look.