What do you do with your junk mail? Jewelry artist Stephanie Casey uses hers to create beautiful pendants; she also re-purposes copper wire salvaged from construction sites, and recycles vintage jewelry, all resulting in her one of a kind, original necklaces and earrings. Powerful glue adheres photos from magazines and catalogs under glass, which will become earring or pendants, joined by that discarded copper wire. She takes old jewelry from thrift shops, or other jeweler's "destash" (unused supplies) and takes it apart, then puts it back together into something new and uniquely her own. Stephanie's jewelry is funky and bold, made with contrasting copper and silver, or gold and silver, to be truly unique.
Stephanie became committed making postive changes for the planet while in college, when she first began to understand global changes. She started out collaborating with a friend on her unique approach to jewelry-making, but has since moved on to working alone, calling her business Another Use. She sells her work online in her Etsy shop by the same name, and also locally in the Pagosa Springs boutique The Funky Trunk, while going to college part time. She is currently laid off from her job at an animal hospital, and so spends up to eight hours a day, either making her jewelry or updating her online shop and promoting the business. So far, the furthest she has shipped an item was to New South Wales, Australia.
Stephanie exhorts you to "Recreate the World." She enjoys shopping at her local church thrift stores, and The Humane Society Thrift Store, and recommends them because of their fair pricing and their funding of non-profit work.
Take a look at Stephanie's jewelry in the slideshow above. Created from what others discard, her work is sure to inspire you to think differently about waste. "I guess I just want to say that everyone is going to have to make some change with how they live on a day-to-day basis because the world can only hold so many people and pollutants," says Stephanie. "When you or others start fighting over commodities, it makes you take for granted how much you wasted and polluted, on top of all the other people out there. By doing something just as simple as a shorter shower, turning lights off, or recycling household materials into new items, such as a wine bottle for a vase, you are making a big difference."
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