I fell across this interesting bangle in the Charity shop for just 50p, it shouted out "buy me please" in such a lovely way that I felt it would be rude not to!

It had that brass metal inside that makes your arm green, but I like the little geometric shapes. (I am reliably informed that these are square based pyramids)

This bracelet has had two makeovers, You'll see why in a minute.

1st - Bright Nail Varnish

I'd seen ideas on good ol' pinterest where people have brightened up old jewellery with nail varnish so I took a selection of bright nail varnishes, some of these are my daughters (she's a good sharer!)

The bracelet has 14 little squares so I needed a number of colours devisable by 14. I think that's 2,7 and 14 isn't it? Anyhow, I found 6 bright colours and one left plain makes 7 - sorted!

Each square got about 3 coats of nail varnish, some needed a fourth coat.

It looks pretty good doesn't it?

What can go wrong:

However after about 4 outings this happened:

Turns out this might be a teenagers project, you know people with plenty of time for messing about re coating their jewellery!

Time for another try.

2nd - Copper Enamel Paint

The nail varnish came right off with nail varnish remover, not that you would expect it not to of course. So the bangle was back to being naked again!

I had this copper enamel paint so tried painting every other square.

This time I also painted the inside to stop the whole green arm thing too.

It needed 3 coats of the copper enamel paint and there are a few brush marks if you look really closely. I imagine using masking tape and a spray paint would give fantastic results, but I do like using what I already have whenever possible. 

So far this paint is a lot more hard wearing than the nail varnish. I'll let you know how it gets on over time.

• Today I'm trying out a larger font size than I've used before - what do you think? Does it look like I'm shouting at you or is it just easier to read? Your feedback is very welcome!

Julie

I'll be linking up at all these great link parties