Rachel Smucker is a sophomore communications major. This entry is from Smucker’s blog on bargain hunting and thrifting. Follow “Nifty and Thrifty” at www.goshencommons.org/category/blogs/nifty-and-thrifty.
Over fall break, I was able to visit my favorite city, NYC, with my cousin Heidi. Along with window-shopping at the Brooklyn Flea Market, we walked around the Fashion District downtown. For those of you who don’t know, the Fashion District is an area within the city that includes several blocks of fabric, button, and other craft material stores. We passed store after store selling feathers, thread, beads, studs and more! It’s every craft junkie’s heaven.One fabric store had rows of sequined fabric, in 10 different colors! They also had almost every kind of textured fabric you could imagine: fur, sequined, cotton, polyester, lace, wool, silk and jean. The starting price was around $20 per yard, but others were priced much higher than that. Alas, the prices were enough to give any college student a heart attack.
Luckily, something glitzy and silver caught my eye that was just within my price range! Deep into the back of the store, I found two silver dangles, and for the low price of $4 each, they were mine. The minute I saw them I knew they belonged on my ears. The minute I got home (this is due to what I call an “artist exhilaration rush” — having to complete a project right after you thought of it) I attached two gold earring hooks to my dangles with a pair of pliers. It took me a total of about 10 minutes to finish both earrings.
So although I struck out on the fabric, I struck silver with my new earrings. I only had to dig a little deeper to find the treasure.
Smucker created these earrings from silver dangles she found in a New York City craft store.
