I never throw anything away. I'm a pack rat and a flea market junkie. Where others see outmoded technologies and broken machines, I see jewels just waiting for the right setting.
My brother thinks this is because we would chase the telephone truck to ask for scrap wire (remember all the colors!) when we were kids in Chicago. But it really began in earnest over twenty years ago when I moved to New York City and found a dusty little store in Chinatown called Canal Surplus. It was filled top to bottom with bins and bins of mechanical detritus from who knows where. I never left there without a small bag of treasures and filthy hands. This kicked off a jewelry-making career focused around the beauty of utilitarian objects.
These days I live in New Yorks' Hudson Valley, surrounded by apple orchards and a lot of rocks. When not toiling away in the studio, I can usually be found toiling away in the garden.
Photo by Ronnie Farley
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