Today Lucy is back sharing some of her favourite jewellery designers & their fabulous work. Is anyone else worried that if we keep featuring such talented local people & their products we're all going to end up broke?! At least we'll be supporting local design ;) - Jenny x

Some of Lucy King's delightful pieces from Me Old China

Today I’m featuring some of my favourite items of jewellery, constructed from an assortment of recycled and repurposed materials.

Betty Jo – Lino designs

It’s very hard to do a feature on recycled jewellery without including the wonderful original creations from Betty Jo Designs!

Pendants and brooches are crafted from found pieces of retro lino and recycled laminex, and adorned with cute buttons and vintage doily details. Out of her many fab designs it’s her teacup, and teapot designs that steal my heart. OK....and the odd cupcake too!

www.linoforest.blogspot.com

Roseanne Bartley - Blowflies

Roseanne Bartley is a bit of a Melbourne legend when it comes to creating contemporary jewellery crafted from found materials and general rubbish! These blowfly brooches are cleverly conceived from tin can ring-pulls forming the blowfly wings – too clever!

Or, how about these ingenious ‘One on every corner’ pendants - no guessing where the name comes from! Brilliant!

www.craftvic.org.au

Me Old China

I also make jewellery under my own label Me Old China. The ‘High Tea’ range features pendants made from op-shop collected china plates.

The plates are individually cut and carefully shaped (they’re not broken china) with some pieces even featuring the original plate back-stamps - with sadly many of the original manufacturers now closed down. The finished pieces highlight the beauty of the old plates and patterns, creating quirky nostalgic pieces with a modern twist!

I’m very partial to a nice cuppa, and an essential feature in my work is the connection to old-style kitchen paraphernalia and the English love for drinking tea. The ‘Fancy a Cuppa’ collection is characterised by pendants and brooches cut into the shapes of vintage coffee pots, kettles, teapots and cups, all cut from second-hand Willow plates.

www.meoldchina.etsy.com

'Kearnsie' souvenir cufflinks & rings

It’s the return of the souvenir teaspoon!

This time the gorgeously bizarre old-school souvenirs have been adapted by Kearnsie into ultra kitsch jewellery accessories. I love the retro Australian seaside themes – and the accessories sure beat an ordinary teaspoon as a holiday memento!

www.kearnsie.com.au

Depths of the Never Never – Wound Up Jewellery

The elaborate designs from Depths of the Never Never’s ‘Wound Up’ range is all fashioned from antiquated recycled watch parts.

I love the intricacy inherent with the inner workings of the cogs and mechanisms of the old wrist watches, and it’s striking to see the detail and craftsmanship bought to the forefront, rather than hidden behind a clock face and the monotonous reminder of time.

www.depthsofthenevernever.com.au

Brydie Dyson – paper urchin necklaces

These intricate and delicate paper ‘urchin’ necklaces are the formation of carefully cut, folded and hand-stitched pages from second-hand books.

The natural fragility and deterioration of the paper pages, in contrast to the solid printed text enhance the appeal of these origami-like sculptural pieces. I’m not sure if Brydie Dyson is still making these little treasures, but they perfectly encapsulate the concept of recycled jewellery and are too gorgeous not to include in my favourites list.

www.antelopeandcantaloup.blogspot.com

- Lucy x