Junk Chic

Lately, I’ve been on a kick of making jewelry out of safety pins. I love the idea of working with materials that aren’t traditional jewelry elements. A couple of weeks ago, I went to Ax-Man Surplus, a local surplus store that sells lots of random stuff. It’s one of my favourite stores because you never know what you’re going to find there. It’s an adventure!

I bought a lot of stuff when I went there. Lots of bolts, screws, electrical wiring pieces, springs, tiny bottles, washers, wing nuts, brass drawer pieces, rubber seals, and pretty much everything in-between. If I could imagine it used in a jewelry piece, I bought it. Of course, everything there is ridiculously cheap, so I got a giant bag of goodies for $40.00. Nice!

The first piece I made was a cuff bracelet using vinyl butt connectors for electrical wiring. They’re supposed to be red, but they’re actually a dark pink that I thought was very awesome. I bought an entire bag. Using a basic ladder stitch and some black size 8 seed beads, I made this:

Pretty neat, huh? I like it a lot. I have lots of leftovers, too, so I can make something else from them.

Then, I made a necklace using some aluminum plates. They’re just 2″ circles (not sure what they were for) and I used a metal hole punch to make holes in it. I hung some wire-wrapped beads from it, added a vintage key, hung it from some waxed cotton and used some nuts and metal beads to add flair to it. Ta-da!

It’s surprisingly lightweight.

The third piece I made was a bracelet using some nuts and a wing nut, and just a bit of leather cord.

I think it turned out really well.

And my most recent piece is a necklace I made using just about everything I bought at Ax-Man. I made dangles from a bit of everything I bought, and included some buttons, beads and safety pins I already had. It’s really fun. It might be my favorite necklace ever.