For decades I had a recurring dream . . . well, actually, dreams with a recurring theme: I'd find a box or suitcase or trunk or even a tree filled with trinkets and jewels and tiny, cunningly crafted boxes and machines, all of them marvels. A few years ago, I began collecting antique watch chains and fobs, then Victorian buttons, and on to 19th-century love tokens, cut-steel buckles, brooches, medals, sovereign cases, coins, lithographed tin, pocket knives, diecast toys. I started fashioning all the baubles and bibelots into necklaces and other adornments. I haven't had a discovering-a-small-hoard-of-treasure dream since, because I'm up to my elbows in the riches every day.

 

Most materials I use are recycled, upcycled, repurposed, revived. Visit my Etsy shop to find out more about my process, what's for sale, where and when the pieces originated, and what they call to mind.