Quite a Spectacle!

I was so thrilled last week when I saw, on the weekly Anthropologie readers outfits, that someone else had made their own version of the "Quite a Spectacle" necklace too! Click on the link above to see Kristen wearing it, and then here is the link to her blog posting about making it.

Here is the original from Anthro's site. When you see this necklace from afar, as I did in the catalog, it looks like a long big link necklace. But then you think wait, are those glasses? Yes, they are! That's what I love about Anthro - unique and unusual pieces - but I could not afford the $498 price tag. So of course, I thought about making my own. For myself. Not the sell. Just for myself.
I knew it would be unlikely that I would find cool vintage frames at the few local thrift stores in town, but I tried anyway. No luck. We have some nice antique/thrift stores in a neighboring town, but it's hard for me to get there during their business hours and I figured I would pay a pretty price. So, I did what I always do... start searching eBay and Etsy. I soon realized that hand picking 6 pairs that I loved was going to be hard and pricey as well. When I get an idea in my mind, I don't like to wait for multiple auctions to end or purchase everything from different places. So I started searching for lots of vintage glasses. Found a great seller and I ended up with a lot of 11 for around $50. This would allow me to choose my 6 favorite pairs and have a few spares in case of breakage or accidents during the assembly.

The first step was removing the sides on all of them. Using the tiny screwdriver in our eyeglass repair kit, I set to work. Some were much harder to remove than others, as the threads had been worn too much over time or else they were tightened really, really good. I had to use my little hand drill to get some of them out while being careful not to wreck the component that stays on the frames, as that is what you will be looping your jump rings through to connect all of the frames. I saved all of the sides - not sure what I'll use them for but something may come to mind.

The next part was removing all of the lenses to lessen the weight. These were all made back in the day when the lenses were real glass! I thought they would pop out fairly easy but they did not. I didn't want to risk breaking the frames so I used my hand drill again to drill a hole through the glass resulting in it to shatter so that I could carefully remove it.

Next, I cleaned all of the empty frames. Many of them had makeup still left on the nose pieces! As I was cleaning them, I imagined who might have worn them. I pictured a lady with perfectly coiffed hair, a sweater, and pencil skirt sitting in an office setting.

Last, I linked them all together, added chain and a clasp, and voila! I LOVE how it turned out!

Check out the floral and rhinestone detail on these! Fun vintage charm!