Radical remade jewelry

A better way to create jewelry, economically and ecologically, than stripping precious minerals and ores from the earth is to recycle the unwanted pieces already cluttering dresser drawers and jewelry boxes across America.

That's the belief of Christina Miller, assistant professor of fine arts metals at Millersville University, and it's the reason she and two friends founded Ethical Metalsmiths, an organization, Miller said, that is "concerned about the environment and the human-rights issues associated with mining."

One way to take on the problems of mining, Miller said, is to decrease the demand for precious metals by recycling pieces that already exist. To that end, Ethical Metalsmiths began the Radical Jewelry Makeover last year at Richmond Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va.

This year, Miller brought the program to her classroom at Millersville.

"Radical Jewelry Makeover was designed as a community mining project to show that we have hoarded material in our own jewelry boxes at home, and that it's a great source of material for people to work with as an alternative to using freshly mined metals," Miller said. "It also gives the students an amazing opportunity to see what people collect and to work with materials they don't often get to work with."

Since Sept. 11, Miller, her students and others have been soliciting donations of jewelry.

The response was overwhelming. More than 130 people donated items, more than twice the amount received last year. The donations include costume jewelry, old wedding rings, heirloom pocket watches, rings, bracelets and even items found on a North Carolina beach with a metal detector.

"The jewelry comes in all shapes and sizes — costume, plastic, wood, gold," Miller said. "We've gotten quite a bit of gold and quite a bit of sterling silver."

This week, Miller and her students, past and present, along with alumni, local metalsmiths and Franklin & Marshall College students, have been in the classroom taking apart some pieces and reassembling new ones.

Sometimes that just means restringing beads, while other pieces were "completely transformed by melting down."

The experience gives many students an rare opportunity to work with precious metals.

"I've never been able to work with gold before," Millersville senior Juleanne Benkoski of Limerick said. "I would never be able to afford gold unless it was something like this."

Two students from last year's makeover in Richmond are helping out this week at Millersville.

Carlene Bermann, a junior from Hampton, Va., likes "the philosophy" behind the project and enjoys working with "everybody's junk."

"The whole process of the recycling and getting everyone aware of what's going on in the mining industry, I think that's the most important part to me," she said.

Meg Roberts, a junior from Richmond, said, "As object makers, it's hard to justify bringing another object into the world and adding to the junk already existing. This gives the junk a purpose since it can be recycled."

The designs of the new jewelry are the students' own. Miller encourages them to "be clever in their reuse" and "not just pile on a bunch of materials."

Student-created items will be exhibited from 5 to 9 p.m. Friday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday in The Candy Factory Gallery at the Keppel Building, 323 N. Queen St.

Donors and the public may purchase jewelry at the exhibit and pick up the pieces from 4 to 6 p.m. Saturday.

Seventy percent of proceeds will go to the Ethical Metalsmiths to help pay for next year's program in San Francisco. The remaining 30 percent will go to the makeover sponsor, the Millersville University Jewelry and Metal Arts Guild.
Source: lancasteronline