Vintage Bakelite Mahjong Tile Bracelet

I love giving old things that might be thrown away new life! This is a chunky and funky fashion accessory that is sure to draw comments.

This bracelet is created with Vintage Applejuice Bakelite Mahjong Mah Jong tiles from the 1930s or 1940s and plastic beads from a broken vintage necklace.

I have been creating jewelry with old game pieces for years now and my favorite game pieces to work with are Mahjong tiles.

Mahjongg tiles sets are lovely works of art and have well over 100 pieces so if you lose a few you can't really play the game properly. I get old vintage and antique sets and try to make complete sets again. Sometimes I can combine tiles from different sets and they match up fine. Bakelite tends to age differently based on where they are stored so it's a hit or miss proposition.

When I'm left with a handful of tiles that can't be put to use restoring a set I make fun fashion accessories with them.

I sometimes use power tools to prepare my bits and pieces for use in art and jewelry. It has been a huge learning experience to see how different materials react to drilling and other types of manipulation. That is a creative process in itself for me. How to alter something to be used in a way it was not meant to be used. I drilled these tiles and strung them with stretch cord using beads as spacers.

It's always a surprise to see what happens during manipulation. Sometime I destroy something and some materials melt and some explode so I have to adjust my drill speed and type of bits I use based on how these old plastics react.

Go green with fun Trashion wearables!