Finally Found a Home for my Earring!

I don't know if any of you have memories like this, but when I was a little girl, there was nothing I loved to do more than go through my mom's jewelry box and look at all her jewelry.  She had a lot of old pieces that had sentimental value, and new ones too.  I felt like it was a treasure.  A few years ago when my mom passed, I inherited her jewelry boxes, and all the treasures within.  There was a single, screw on earring in there that always caught my eye, It had been my grandmother's, and my mom kept it for sentimental reasons, because her mom had passed on when I was only five, in 1961, so this earring is probably older than I am.  It is the swirly piece in the center of the flower in the above pictures.  It is so detailed in person, and delicate in color, I just loved it.  I took it off the earring back, and was looking for just the right beads to accompany it into a necklace.  It had lived in that jewelry box for years and I wanted to be able to wear it and show off Grandma's  earring the way it should be.  My daughter gave me the shell flower pendant along with other beads for my birthday, and then I got some of the other beads off an old necklace I took apart, and all of a sudden, an idea came to me that these very beads would be the ones worthy of creating a necklace for this lovely earring piece, so I began constructing it.  It is an unusual color combination, but I love it.   Now I have a necklace to wear that reminds me of my  mom and Gram .  I think if they could see it, they would approve and be glad it was being put to good use.