5 Ways to Reset Vintage Jewelry

If you have a ring, brooch or earrings that showcase quality stones, but sport fussy, outdated settings, redesign your pieces to create a streamlined, custom look. Some fine jewelers specialize in reworking heirloom stones into new, updated mountings. You keep the sentiment of your vintage piece, but lose the old-fashioned look.

If you own mismatched earrings, an old cocktail ring and a lapel pin that screams the '80s, let a jewelry designer combine them all into one fabulous creation. You'll pay for the creative design work, but if there's extra gold or platinum in the setting, you may be able to sell it to the jeweler to defray the cost of the new piece.

Remaking vintage jewelry into a mothers ring or pendant is a neat way to respect the past while celebrating future generations. These rings usually have one large, central stone to symbolize the mother and a smaller stone for each child, often chosen for the baby's birth month.

A favorite ring stone from your mother or grandmother could work as the mother-stone and become a fitting homage to that special woman in your life.

You don't necessarily have to reset a piece of jewelry to revitalize it. Try using a brooch as a pendant, or a necklace as a bracelet. Coming up with creative ways to use what you already have can make for dynamic dressing and create an unexpected and unique personal style statement. Transform a pair of plain black pumps into evening footwear with some simple clip-on earrings. It's a fashion makeover you can do in under a minute. Want to add shimmer to a basic, black belt? Attach an old lapel pin to it, and you'll create a sparkling accent for a black skirt or conservative suit.

Your vintage and heirloom jewelry doesn't have to be made with precious gems and metals to have importance. The most significant jewelry in your collection may have more sentimental than monetary value. Converting some of these pieces into charms is an inspired way to make them part of your regular jewelry wardrobe.

Add a simple, metal backing and glue or solder it to the decorative front of your dad's cufflinks, your gran's hat pin or your mom's broken earring. That way, you can get your sentimental treasures out of a dusty drawer and into the light where they'll be a reminder of good times and important relationships.