Recycled/Found Objects, and Oddity Jewelry

Using found objects in jewelry has become all the rage. October 8, 2015 I featured a prominent artist, Richard Salley, who uses found objects in his work.  His work is amazing and beautiful. It is a wonderful example of thinking out of the box when it comes to design.

Some of the items he uses are lunch boxes, jar lids, and odds and ends you might find out on a walk. I made the bracelet to the right at one of his classes, which was fun and interesting. I loved that there were no set rules... except for measuring, cutting and drilling... the rest was up to you to decide what you wanted to add.

cuff bracelet inspired by Richard Salley

 For my piece, I used a vintage button for the focal... held in place with a bezel of a baby food jar lid, there is also some wire, some acrylic flowers, rhinestone head pins, and the clasp is something I found in the scrapbook section at Michael's...

 The piece is clunky, funky and fun to wear. I think that is a lot of what jewelry should be. Especially the fun to wear part.

pendant from Kim St Jean class

The craving for something that is handmade, maybe one of a kind, and fun to wear is what has spurred the business of jewelry making in the past few years. Bead & Button shows and Beadfest events are drawing crowds of faithful followers who create their own pieces and crave more classes to learn new skills.


I have attended some of the events, at first just as a lark, I just wanted to see what they were doing... I got hooked! The jewelry you can make ranges from beaded to some pretty intense stone setting and sawwork. 

I created a few pieces over the years that were directly inspired by the work of some of the teachers, like Kim St. Jean, Jeff
Fulkerson, and

vinyl brooch

  Gwen Fuller Youngblood.  They inspired me to explore using different types of metals, and not simply believing that you had to use conventional methods to achieve your goal.

brass, polymer clay, and glass beads