Beading Party

I love a good jewelry party, but I don't really love all the Made-in-China and possibly lead tainted, hopefully not slave labor, and cost more than I should be spending parts of it.
Fortunately, I have a brilliant mother who came up with an idea. A Beading Party.

What you need-
a group of friends
all your and their broken beaded necklaces
some cord/wire/whatever you want to string something new on
new clasps
wire cutters
jewelery or needle nose pliers
creativity
snacks
bowls
baggies

It'd be nice if you had
ear ring hooks
a couple of those special beading trays that let you lay out your beads in order first
everyone bring a package of new beads to play with
background music
a big long table

Once you have your guest list together, it's pretty simple.  Invite your friends, make sure they know what to bring, and when everyone gets there have fun making new jewelry out of your broken old jewelry.  At the end of the day, everyone has their own new creations instead of a hostess gift, and all the left over beads can go in little baggies and go home with whomever brought them.

It's easy, and your friends will probably be relieved to be able to create something new for free or maybe four  dollars in new beads rather than getting the high pressure sales pitch to buy something they really don't feel they can afford.

So go, plan a beading party, have fun, and save some broken but loved pieces of jewelry from sitting there waiting for you to get around to fixing them, or worse, from winding up in the garbage.  You'll have a great time, and in the end you'll be able to be proud of what you've created.