Use Metallic Elastic for Jewelry

I save all the metallic (and colored) stretch elastic that comes on presents and packages, as I am always finding a use for it, if only to re-use on a present. I just finished a bead necklace that looks like it would cost $100 in Anthropologie and strung the beads (African? I found them at a thrift shop) on silver metallic elastic. Voila! a gorgeous, new, stylish necklace for nada. (I don't remember how much I paid for the beads, but it wasn't a lot.)

You can either cover the elastic, as I did or let it show as part of the necklace design. I have used it in brown to replace a leather thong on a casual necklace. The elastic is really quite sturdy and will last just as long (or longer) then the rubbery elastic often used now to string beads. (I just bought a hematite bracelet strung that way.)

By pam munro from Los Angeles, CA