Mood Swing Studio has several lines of wonderfully fun and whimsical baubles available at any one time.  Since many of them are made from recycled or one-of-a-kind materials, you shouldn’t wait when you see something you like…and there is a lot to like!

There are sweet pendant necklaces like these, and also lines of more glitzy wearables.

Artist: Gayle Friedman
Website: ArtJewelryOnline
I am interested in the stuff that flows in and out of our hands – in my case, it can be a scrap of fur, or fragments of metal that I encounter on my bench. These things are often imbued with unexplored meaning and emotion. I am drawn to relationships, and in making my jewelry, I get to explore the relationships that we have with these materials, the people and places they come from and how they can be understood through the medium of jewelry.

Gayle Friedman lives and works in Washington, DC.  She studied metal
smithing with Anya …read more

Finding creative uses for old items is nothing new to artists, but the spirit of preserving the planet is more important than ever before and GreenCraft Magazine is here to honor and inspire those who find artistic applications for normally discarded resources.
GreenCraft Magazine will provide ideas for repurposing trash to treasure by showcasing projects where waste is repurposed into ecologically chic creations.
To be considered for our Publication, please submit your recycled, reused and repurposed items to GreenCraft Magazine no later than April 14, 2009.

Garth Johnson just got himself a contract for Quarry Publishing to write the next book in their “1000″ series! Here’s what he says:
I’ll be writing 1000 Ideas for Creative Reuse, a book filled with 1000 (you read right) examples of craft, art and design made out of repurposed, reused and recycled materials. The book will be bristling with amazing contributions from artists and crafters around the world. What do you make out of reused stuff? I want to hear about it! Here are some of the categories I’m looking for:
Paper Craft, Art, Jewelry, Accessories, Clothing, Fiber and Fabric, Housewares, …read more

Not gems, not diamonds, but glass from the past now reclaimed into a remarkable line of recycled antique glass jewelry! Our footprints are all over this world, but do we have to stomp so hard?
Guest Author: Laura Bergman
Bottled Up Designs

I’m Laura Bergman, the creator of Bottled Up Designs. I have lived in the Pennsylvania Amish Country all of my life and have a life long love (coming from my Mom!) of antique glass and bottles. I have spent countless hours combing though the wooded habitats and rural farmlands of this beautiful spot of America picking through the old glass dumps …read more

Technique Tuesday!

One of the things I love most about making these pins is that you can cut out a bunch of base pieces all at one time, and then you can spend a little time here and a little there putting the pins together using whatever little scraps come to hand. Or are lying around on top of your work table!
There are lots of materials that you can use for a base, but one of the easiest to work with is good old Foam-Core. It’s easy to cut, you can stick wires into it to embed things if needed, and …read more

Make Art Monday

How about whipping up a whole batch of these pins, one for every color in your wardrobe? It’s fun to recycle found objects and other treasures into unique pins. The how-tos are coming tomorrow, for Technique Tuesday!

Technique Tuesday!

This pendant necklace that I showed you yesterday was fashioned from a bola tie slide and some left-over beads from various vintage necklaces. Start by removing the slide finding from the back of the focal piece and sanding down the rough spots if necessary. Next, if there isn’t a hole through which you can fit a jump ring, drill one at the top of your piece. Mine didn’t have a hole, of course, but that was just a good excuse to use our drill press. Be really careful when you’re drilling unknown materials…you never know when something might shatter, …read more

Make Art Monday
I love autumn colors more than just about anything, so even though it might be jumping the gun a bit (we still want to believe that it’s summer, right?), I couldn’t help pulling out the fall-colored beads.

Tomorrow for Technique Tuesday, I’ll take you through the steps to re-purposing some old jewelry for a new autumn treat.

“Discovered Objects and Jewelry d’Art” is the tagline of this delightful Etsy shop, featuring steampunk style jewelry that is beautifully made. Sometimes “steampunk” ends up equated with “sloppy”, but that just shouldn’t be. And it is certainly not the case at edm.designs!
I am especially taken by his rings, but that’s only the beginning. You will find necklaces, bracelets, pendants, pins, cufflinks, and earrings as well.