Necessity is the mother of jewelry business

Fourteen years ago, Jill Smith decided she wanted a banister for her front porch, but the cost to have one installed wasn’t in her budget.

“My husband said if I could find money to buy the raw materials, he’d build it,” Smith recalls.

She combed her basement searching for anything she could sell at yard sale.

“I cleaned out every treasure I could find in the house,” she says.

Then she got an idea. Why not make something to sell from the unsalable junk?

She took apart broken watches, jewelry, silverware and old buttons and crafted them into wearable art.

“I take things nobody wants and restructure them into pins,” Smith says.

She took her jewelry to craft shows and, after about seven or eight shows, she had earned enough money for the porch banister.

Smith, who sells her work at craft shows and through a few shops, says she finds her inspiration just about anywhere.

“I come across something and say, ‘this is a great idea,’” Smith says.

Take, for instance, a wooden poker chip that caught Smith’s eye at a dollar store. She painted it and embellished it with buttons and a broken earring.

She typically finishes her work with gold leaf, but she wanted to try something in silver. The problem was, she didn’t have anything silver in her house other than aluminum foil, which was too thick to use.

Looking around her kitchen she found sweet inspiration in the silver foil wrappers of Hershey kisses. With a little bit of black paint, the wrappers made the poker chip look like pewter.

Of course, she couldn’t let the candy inside go to waste.

“I was forced to eat Hershey kisses,” Smith recalls. “I make sacrifices for my art.”

Once she gets an idea, Smith makes the pins in stages, with like pins done at the same time. To turn 12 or 15 watch parts into pins can take six hours over the course of a week, she says.

“Each one is different so I never get bored,” Smith adds. “It isn’t like a production line. I’m doing what I enjoy doing.”

Everything is done with epoxy, rather than hot glue, so items are sturdy and don’t fall apart.

She also makes wool flower pins with vintage buttons.

Her materials come from dollar and thrift stores and friends who give her bags of unwanted items.

“I have the best friends in the world,” Smith says.

Turning trash into treasure just makes sense, she says. “It’s using something you already have.”

And if something doesn’t work, Smith finds a new idea.

“Not everything sells,” she admits. “I try different ideas.”

Smith, a retired social services worker and grandmother of three, works from her home in North Middleton Township. She sells primarily through craft shows, including one Dec. 17 at Central Dauphin East in Harrisburg and another Nov. 26 at the Radisson Penn Harris Hotel and Convention Center in Camp Hill.

Her pins are also available at Downtown Antiques on North Hanover Street in Carlisle and the Freehand Gallery in Lemoyne.

Recently, Smith’s work was chosen to be featured for sale at a consignment gallery in Brooklyn, N.Y.

The Brooklyn Women’s Exchange, founded in 1854, is the oldest women’s exchange in the country. The non-profit offers handmade goods for sale.

Smith was invited to apply to have her pins sold there and she had to complete and extensive application process before earning the distinction of consigning her pins.

“I’m so excited about it,” she says.

Pins cost between $5 and $15 and she accepts custom orders.

“I love doing it,” she says.
Source: cumberlink