Raise your hand if you live in a super clean place with no garbage visible anywhere in the streets. No, garbage pilled sky high in dumps, facilities in the outskirts and in underground dumps do not count. If your hands are still up, it either means that you live in a zero waste locality or that your administration is dumping the garbage in the ocean/neighbouring towns/ country or even in space. Take a moment, and let that sink in.
All of us want to lead comfortable lives, one that is modelled on the “use and throw” philosophy. From clothes to electronics planned obsolescence is everywhere. Even a culture that is as ancient as India’s, which was once a zero waste culture, stands a mute spectator to ever growing piles of garbage. So as a designer, I feel that is it my duty to promote ethical consumption through Recycled and repurposed jewellery.
Fashion motto: Recycle, repurpose, reuse, and upcycle
Recycle, repurpose, and upcycle is a famous fashion motto. But do you know what exactly these words mean? Recycling means that you convert waste (material) into something of use. Plastic bottles can be recycled to make bags, roads, or even a pair of jeans. Many comment that Indian glass beads are worthless as their quality is sub par. But I take pride in using them not only because they are locally produced but a lot of beads are made by recycling glass bottles.
Recycling
Off late, I have been travelling a lot between Bangalore and Chennai. On most of my return journeys, I get a cup of tea or hot chocolate at the airport near my boarding gate. They have all these wooden spoons and forks for grabs that are thrown away after a single use. For my recycling challenge, I decided embellish two spoon and a fork.. First up is a spoon inspired by Disney’s Enchanted Tiki room. I am quite scared of (stuffed) birds but I enjoyed the Tiki island performance at WDW. It was colourful, energetic, and quirky and I made the spoon just like that.
Paper Machie and Newspaper bead necklace
This is my pièce de résistance is a Recycled statement necklace made with newspaper discs and paper machie beads. This is one among the seven designs that I created to teach an artisans awareness workshop recently. I will post more of the recycled, repurposed, and upcycled jewellery that I made in that workshop in a separate post soon. The beads are coloured in kid friendly edible ink and varnished for durability. I have been eyeing such fabulous statement lightweight necklaces for a long time, so when I had some time after the workshop, I made this one for myself. Sorry folks, this one is not for sale.
Upcycled Jewellery
Upcycling is adding something of value to a near waste object to increase its what. A number of initial posts on this blog are on recycled and upcycled jewellery.
A Spoonful of pearls
Have you ever heard stories of kings and queen who had so much wealth that they would hand out gemstones by a ladle/handful as gifts? I have heard many and wondered what it would be like to have atleast spoonfuls of pearls and diamonds. Naturally, that meant that I cover another wooden spoon (this one unused) with pearls and rhinestones. This is quite the addition to my spoonful of flowers pendant.
Blingy Fork pendant
After dressing up two spoons, it was time to dress up a fork. I painted a wooden unused fork and covered it with old rhinestones and natural seeds. While both the spoonful of pearls and Blingy fork pendant did not turn out the way I intended and I would never sell them as they are oddly shaped with not much finesses. Nevertheless, I think that it was a fun experiment to make them.
Re-purposed jewellery
Re-purposing is using an once used (preferably near waste) object for some other purpose with a little or no modification. Cosmetic modifications are typically used i while creating jewellery. In my post Responsible repurposing in Riti Jewellery, I wrote about how I reused and repurposed beads and pendants to create a collection. In my post Luna Moth Necklace a UFO story, I wrote about using UFOs to create assemblage jewellery. Don’t know what an UFO is? Then you must read the above post where I tell an interesting story about Creators.Inc.
I worked on the Aurora necklace from the Swap and hop to make it stable. Inspired by the Bee components that Mr. Erin made for the Art bead scene studio challenge, I made insect connectors. I feel that the drawer pull is a light bulb calling the insects its way. In this process of transformation, the form of the necklace has changed. While it is no longer the Aurora Borealis necklace in terms of colour and finish, I feel that the essence of the concept where life is attracted to light remains – almost too literally.
I hope you enjoyed looking at my Recycled and repurposed jewellery for this challenge. I would love to hear from now and often. So please do comment on the posts and keep coming back to see what I have for you in the days to come. Until then, Recycle, repurpose, reuse, and upcycle.
This month’s Participants
This is a blog hop. Please visit the other participants to see how they have all repurposed and recycled objects into art.
Art Elements Team
I hope you found it interesting
40 responses to “Recycled and repurposed jewellery”
As always, a great post Divya! No one likes to think about where all this garbage goes, but thank you for breaking it down – it’s such a problem. I love your projects!
Thank you Susan. I don’t claim to be a responsible consumer, but I like to think at times as a responsible designer..That’s all
I’m glad to hear that the spoons and forks at the tea shops are at least wood, which can break down and compost rather than the plentiful plastic ones I see most often. Your use of them is a lot of fun. I now have the Tiki Room song in my head. Ha! That necklace with the bright beads is my favorite though. It’s really an eye-catching piece, and it’s no wonder you want to keep it for yourself!
There has been a ban on use and throw plastic in India and a lot of states faithfully follow it. The necklace seemed so fun when I made it in the workshop that I really wanted one for myself. I am someone who rarely makes 2 pieces of one design – this time I made three 😀 Thanks for stopping by.
As usual, I love reading your posts so much, and always enjoy looking at your jewelry. It is always so colorful and uniquely designed. I understand why you’re keeping this necklace it must be so empowering and fun to wear! The wooden cutlery are so inspirational and this theme has made me think even more about how to use everything around me.
Thanks Karin. I hope you do find things around your house and in your travels that inspire you.
I love your blingy fork pendant. I think it is a wonderful creation.
Thanks Kathy…i had just found by pouch of rhinestones and went crazy with it
Divya, I love the repurposed spoon and never would have thought of that! Also, a word about recycling efforts .. I come from California where I grew up aware of water shortage, gas shortage, and stringent Air/Environmental policies. Then I moved to France, and would come back here to Georgia every year where Sis lives and realized that we have stricter laws (and greater awareness) in France about plastics and a larger array of what we can recycle (put out at curb, to be picked up weekly) than a State in the U.S.! Astounding! Also, in France at a local supermarket, one can dispose of old batteries, light bulbs, plastic grocery bags, and other things. It’s so easy… Not so, here in the wealthy Northern suburbs of Atlanta though :/ ..
I feel the same too. If there were accessible places were we could recycled stuff, I think we would also recycle more. At my house we do give away bottles, newspapers and other waste items to the recycling guy. But do all of them get recycled the right way, we don’t really know. Also, he won’t recycle anything electric or chemical based, so we simply throw it out.
Beuatiful designs, I particularly like your final piece… that green is gorgeous!
Thanks Caroline
Great ideas! But I love the simple bold colorful statement of your Paper mache necklace.
Thanks Jenny; that paper necklace is my favourite of the lot too.
Your cutlery projects are super cute and I just love that statements necklace – a real impact piece. Thanks for taking part in the challenge.
Thanks for Hosting this challenge Lesley. It was really fun
Your posts are always so informative. Your recycled/repurposed jewelry is clever and innovative but I really love the paper mache/newspaper beaded one. Those red beads look just like coral. Amazing job with that!
Thanks Cathy. its amazing what a coat of paint and some varnish will do
Better wood than plastic, we’ll done Bangalore airport cafe, I say.
And that necklace with its colours- wow you’ve outdone yourself, no wonder it’s not for sale
Thanks Neena, I love its big bold colours
Not just me that used spoons in a re-purposed fashion, although yours is much more bling than mine which turned out a little creepy! Love your paper bead necklace that is fabulous and something I have had on my to do wish list for sometime.. paper beads 😀
Haaa…I just bought a tube of glue and had to glue things down. That is why everything is so blingy 😀 I do hope that you get to make your version of paper bead necklace soon
What charming pieces you created! I am rather in love with your spoonful of pearls necklace both the design and the story behind it, just wonderful!
Thanks Niky. Though it didn’t turn out the way I wanted, I still like the feeling behind it too. Maybe I would do another version of it soon.
Your posts are always so informative. I love coming here to see what you’ve written and created. All of your pieces are clever and innovative but I LOVE the paper mache/newspaper beads. That necklace looks amazing and the red beads look exactly like coral! Well done!
The necklace of newspaper beads…WOW! I love that. And I like that you can see the text peeking out from under the ink. The wooden cutlery projects are very clever and I love those too. The background about the spoonful of pearls was very interesting. I’ve never heard that before. Thanks for participating in another challenge! I love seeing what you have for us each time.
Thank you Jen. I have heard several stories as a kid of Indian kings and queen who would gift hand fulls of gold coins, pearl chains and other gemstones to poets, artists, teachers, and sculptors. They knew how to respect and cherish creative folks.
What a great post, Divya! It is so sad that we produce so much waste in our contemporary world. Some of it can go a long time but some is not meant to last and people are sucked into this vortex.The drawer knob is a fantastic idea and I love the remake! I also have some paper beads and never thought of painting them, they look so much better that way! I love the spoon full of pearls – looks classy and vintage!
I am glad that you like my remake. You can use almost any dye/ink to paint paper beads. Alcohol ink and poster colours would be great too with 2-3 coats of varnish. Do try it out.
The Disney-inspired spoon is so charming, Divya, and the more I observed it, the more I smiled. 🙂 Paper beads, that’s how I started my self-made jewelry journey, and I love the hand-crafted look in your necklace – great bold colors too! Your spoonful of pearls / diamonds is a lovely take on the story. As for the blingy fork piece – if you ever make a similar one, the pair would work really well as earrings! Your light-and-insects necklace is the one I love the most from amongst your projects – wonderful work with the components, the wrapping and the composition! You’ve had a very creative month.
I did not think of making earrings using forks. Its a great idea and I’ll try it out. Thanks
I love this post Divya! It reminded me of my high school days where out of lack of interesting beads at the market, we made our own using paper! Brought back some great memories! Also the wooden spoon – gosh! It is gorgeous!
I try to recycle and repurpose as much as I can and try to keep my carbon signature under control.
Thanks Maya. The paper machie bead is something that I tried many years ago for the exact same reason that you are talking about. But I couldnt continue doing more of it. Thankfully I got his opportunity to work with artisans.
I love the bold colors in that paper bead necklace. I bet it is fun to wear. Each of the spoon make-overs is fantastic in its own details. I sometimes make things I know will never be for sale because they’re experimental, and it’s fun to play like that sometimes. The re-do on the drawer pull necklace is awesome. I’m glad you found a way to make stronger connections from the pendant to the neckline.
These days since I make very few pieces, I seldom do anything for fun. Tehy are mostly sale oriented. That is where challenges like these help as they make you come out of your shell.
These are great ideas. I especially like the statement necklace made of paper.
Thank you so much Ann
Wow…. Very interesting post!
Amazing post! I love jewelry! As a office going girl I used to wear studs which look awesome in your article. You really have a good collection of style. And I’ll definitely try this style for my outfit. The shared information is really great.
To mention in specific, Really love your Blingy Fork pendant. That’s an awesome piece of art! Lots of love!!
Thanks Maria