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

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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 Pinchuk at the Corcoran School of Art and Design.

Friedman is the founder of Studio 4903, a studio space for working artists,

that also serves after hours as a 21st Century Salon by hosting artistic and

cultural events.  Her work is published in 500 Earrings, Lark Books, 2007.

She has regular shows and sales locally, and in Studio 4903.

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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.

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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, Furnishings, Houses, Interiors, Environments, GeekCraft, and ManCraft

In other words, just about anything you make that uses recycled materials! Here’s where you get the info:

Call for Entries

The deadline is January 5, 2009, but early submissions are HIGHLY encouraged.

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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 from a time gone by.

When you walk through the beautiful woodlands, it is all so often marred by the site of old glass poking through the earth, twinkling in the sun. As a collector you are drawn to the glass, picking up anything nearby, rocks or sticks, to dig it out and see what it could be. Your pulse always quickens wondering what it will be, with the case all to often being the broken remnants tossed there years ago. Those remarkable vintage blue Mason Jars, most of which I only find the bottoms, are among a very common find. I try to picture who would have used it in a pantry f ull of the summer’s produce put up for the oncoming winter. Broken depression glass, mostly in the pink and green, the most popular colors I find.

During this era in history raw materials were plentiful and new production methods were implemented, making beautiful patterned glass affordable for everyone. Times were tough, however, and I think of these pieces being broken and thrown in the dumps, perhaps never to be replaced due to lean years. Clorox bottles, always packaged in those pretty amber bottles a staple in every home lay out there by the millions from the early to mid 1900’s, the amber glass glowing when the sun passes through it. Ruby glass, both made during the depression, then later for beer bottles in the 1940’s looks like it’s on fire when the sun hits it a certain way.

The collectible pieces end up with a place of honor, but what of all the broken remains? I have figured out a way to reclaim these broken pieces and preserve their history in my new line of recycled glass jewelry, Bottled Up Designs. I love this old glass and the history behind it, and share that with you, as every piece comes with “The Story of the Glass” detailing what each piece was originally and the age of the glass.

Recently, while walking down a wooded path, I saw a mother doe and her baby fawn laying in a sunny patch of a quiet woods. They soon caught the scent of me and my dog, Holly, and were up and away. Under where the fawn was laying was the broken jagged remains of a cobalt Noxzema bottle. I sighed and picked it up to bring home wondering once again where we ever thought we had the right to do this.

To see my jewelry in all the pretty vintage colors, please visit Bottled Up Designs
~ Laura Bergman, Reclaim Artist

Post from: Jewelry and Beading

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 it can be toughened up when you’re done by a coating of two-part resin. Like I said, I usually cut out a bunch of pieces in one session, and then work on them little by little.

This particular pin is called The Key to My Heart, and it features an antique skeleton key, some origami paper, a couple strands of fiber, and a couple of beads. Here’s how I made it…change the directions to suit your own projects!

Step by step instructions

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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!

Post from: Jewelry and Beading

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, so always wear eye protection.Gather up some beads that go nicely with your focal piece. I used some beads from 4 or 5 different necklaces here. The one style that I had enough of, I used to create the necklace strand. They are resin beads that look like polished wood. The rest are a mixture of resin and glass. I love how lightweight the resin beads are…you can get a lot of bulk and movement without a lot of added weight.

I started with a split ring in the middle of the beaded strand so that it wouldn’t slip off the beading wire. From there, I hung 4 jump rings in a chain, with the last jump ring attaching to the pendant.

Since the holes in resin beads are sometimes rather large, I slipped a seed bead onto each headpin, followed by the resin or glass bead. Create a wrapped loop at the top. Arrange the bead dangles the way you desire, and attach each of them to the jump ring chain. To make the cluster of beads fuller, attach some of them to additional jump rings that will attach to the chain.

Copyright 2008 Cyndi Lavin. Not to be reprinted, resold, or redistributed for profit. May be printed out for personal use or distributed electronically provided that entire file, including this notice, remains intact.

Post from: Jewelry and Beading

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.

Post from: Jewelry and Beading

“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.

Post from: Jewelry and Beading