Wearable Art: Up-cycled Jewelry
My up-cycled jewelry is wearable art, fashioned from found objects, vintage materials, newspaper, wood, costume jewelry, glitter, nail polish, spray paint, and anything else I can find that sparks joy. Each piece has been assembled by attentive hands, and all earring posts/wires have been replaced by either sterling silver or hypo-allergenic metal.
Up-cycling lengthens the life of its beauty, simply by giving it a different role in a new piece. The nature of this art form makes it a highly convenient creative outlet for me, and therefore, highly productive by default.
I start by laying out some items and asking: What am I looking at right now, in this space, in this moment? What combinations do I see? How does it change when I look at it from a different space? How does it make me feel when I try a different combination? What statement does it make? Such questions require a steady background of Coltrane, Baker and Brubeck.
Uncompleted pieces live a good portion of their lives hovering in studio trays, until they’ve been sufficiently transformed into something I’d wear myself.
“Birthday Queen” necklace-metal, plastic, glass, swarovski crystal, 2025
“Aviv” necklace-metal, plastic, swarovski crystal, glass, 2025
“Mother of Red Dragons?” earrings-metal, plastic, vintage tiles, glass, 2025
“Fancy Joker” necklace-metal, plastic, vintage tile, 2025
“Beaded blum” necklace-metal, plastic, vintage tile, seed beads, 2025
“blum” necklace-metal, plastic, vintage tile, 2025
“Pair of Flowers” earrings-metal, plastic, vintage tiles, 2025
“Chai Bam” earrings-metal, plastic, vintage tiles, 2025
“2 Dirty Birdies” earrings-metal, plastic, vintage tiles, 2025
“Looka’deez Jo-kizz!” earrings-metal, plastic, vintage tiles, 2025
“Chai Dot Pair” earrings-metal, plastic, vintage tiles, 2025
“Khaleesi in Green” earrings-metal, plastic, vintage tiles, 2025
“NEWS” necklace-metal, plastic, vintage tiles, seed beads, 2025
“Mahjong tile” zipper pull/ bag charms- metal, plastic, vintage tiles, 2025
“Modern Magen David” necklace-metal, plastic, glass, rhinestones, 2025
“Soap Pair“-metal, plastic, vintage tiles, 2025
“Go-Go Girl” earrings-metal, plastic, 2025
“Go-Go Girl” necklace-metal, plastic, 2025
“Royal Dahlia” brooch-metal, plastic, glass, 2025
“Hanukkah Party” necklace-metal, wire, plastic, 2025
“Hanukkah Party” earrings-metal, wire, plastic, 2025
“Modern Dreidel” earrings-metal, plastic, wire-2025
“Modern Dreidel” necklace-metal, plastic, vintage sterling silver, wire-2025
“Chief’s Queen” necklace-metal, plastic, Swarovski Crystal, silver-2025
“Chief’s Queen” earrings-metal, plastic, Swarovski Crystal, silver, wire-2025
“Snowflake Petals” earrings-sterling silver, bakelite, metal, costume pearls, metal, rhinestones-2025
metal-2024