jewelry making isn’t always set in stone

By Lina Morris

AA hot torch heats up stainless steel wire until it turns scolding red. Iridescent, watery stones get cut and shaped into smaller pieces. Different varieties of hammers pound down on sheets of brass to create texture and scrap pieces of sterling silver are melted and upcycled into something new. These are all processes jewelry designers all over the world, including Austin use to make their jewelry. They put diligent effort into their handcrafted pieces today. However, before today, those designers weren’t always crafting in the same way.

“I kind of grew up making all sorts of things,” owner and head jewelry designer of YEAR 901, Behn Pham said. It wasn’t until later in time that she first found interest in the process of jewelry making, “I started making [jew- elry] really just for fun,” Pham said. In 2016 Pham first started YEAR 901, her company that focuses on sustainable and upcycled jewelry. she said.

I had a really stressful corporate job, so I started making jewelry during the weekends just as a creative outlet, and I kind of just continued from there.

Angela Pellegrini, an Austin jewelry designer who also handcrafts her jewelry, had a similar background growing up. “I’d collect those pony beads and just started messing around with the stretchy string,” she said. Jewelry making only started as a hobby for these jewelers. “When I got into highschool, I auditioned for the art magnet program at school, through McCallum and got to experience the jewelry making class they had,” Pellegrini added. That was where she really found her passion for jewelry making. “From there I decided to continue [it] as a hobby and into a jewelry making business,” she said. Through education, many jewelers have found their passion.

Claire Sommers Buck, of her style was,” Sommers Buck added. Starting off began with the process of trial and error.

After that, their passion turned into full time jobs. “Before I knew it a year had passed by, and then two years had passed by,” Pham said.

The jewelers found materials and methods that they loved as well. Fashion is one of the most polluting and environmentally destructive industries, so designers like Behn Pham and Angela Pelligrini look for sustainable and recyclable materials to incorporate in their designs. “I would go to the bike shop and collect all of the broken pieces and try to tune them into jewelry,” Pellegrini said. She likes to say,

Claire mers Buck

Jewelry, based in Austin, also found her love of the craft through classes. “I got to work [with] the metals, which is what I do now, and I fell in love with it.” In 2009, Sommers Buck created her business, “I ended up finding a studio space, and bought some tools and started making jewelry that I would then give to my friends and family.” Pellegrini also first shared her work similarly. She would showcase her work to friends and family who would then showcase it to friends of theirs. The first step these business owners took was just experimenting with what they loved. “I just had so many creative juices and I just wanted an outlet for them,” Pham said when she first began. There was no correct way to start when it came to their art of jewelry making. “It was sort of a process of experimenting with different designs, kind of figuring out what my

Pham also incorporates similar upcycling methods, “metal, especially silver, is very forgiving, because you can always reuse the scraps, down and turn it into some thing new,” she said. Both jew- elry mak agree that it’s important to use what you have, so there doesn’t have to be more waste in the world. These designers also use lots of other sustainable materials like beads off of damaged clothing, soda can caps, bike spokes, really anything that they find interest in. Gemstones are also commonly incorporated into jewelry, and they work as sustainable materials too when they’re from environmentally responsible sources. “I work with a lot of jade, and that’s really popular,” Pham said. Claire Sommers Buck Jewelry also incorporates stones and gemstones especially. “The gemstones kind of vary, I use a lot of turquoise and a lot of jade.” client. “There’s a different level of fulfillment that I feel when I’m making art and it resonates with someone,” Pham said. Even though designers come up and often put hours into handcrafting a piece of jewel ry, the buyer still has a connection

Along with materials, there are endless forms of jewelry making processes and methods to consider. From traditional methods of wire wrapping to lost wax casting to stone setting, handcrafted jewelry is created either way. Most jewelry making methods are sustainable, and don’t produce any unnecessary waste to the planet. Jewelry designing can also “be as fast as you want it, and then take as long as you want to,” Pham said. There is plenty of creative freedom when it comes to the creation of art. However sometimes the creative process doesn’t always flow. “With the creative process it’s not just: ‘Okay, I’m going to be creative and create this design right now,’” Sommers Buck said. It takes time for an idea to come and that’s what makes handmade jewelry special. It takes time for a piece to be born.

Once a jewelry piece is finished, it can go a long way.

Sommers Buck said. “It can make us feel really confident because we’re wearing earrings that we feel pretty in, or a ring that’s really bold that we feel powerful in,” she elaborates. Jewelry is as important to the designer, than it is to the the piece just the same. These objects of person- al adornment, seemingly simple, sometimes carry a message so much bolder and brighter than is perceived. Especially when the piece is sustainably sourced, it carries a message much more vivid for the future. With a combination of both fashion and art, jewelry can speak so loudly without even saying anything.3

Behn Pham desings and displays her handcrafted jewelry in person.