TEQUESTA, Fla. — The Lighthouse ArtCenter in Tequesta is helping to take special pieces of jewelry full circle, opening up a sale of items for the Radical Jewelry Makeover.
It started with 115 local people who donated necklaces, earrings, charms, baubles and beads, each with its own story.
Pre-pandemic, a group of jewelry students sorted the enormous variety of pieces. They ranged from plastic to precious metals, a few even came with a note. There were animal shapes, turquoise stones, cameos, rings and more.
Liz Cohn donated, then sorted the enormous variety. She remarked there were lots of eagles, seashells and charms in the mix.
“By far the most unusual was a little gold medallion and on it was engraved ‘menage a trois’ with an address on the back,” joked Cohn.
Over the course of several weeks in early 2020, a group of the jewelry students were trained to melt and roll precious metals, reworking the old pieces into new.
Cohn created multiple pieces. Her favorite was a pendant reflective of Florida’s oceans, using 7 different pieces of jewelry to make the one.
“It’s addictive, it’s really, really fun,” she said.
The new pieces are on sale now.
“For the environment, it’s nice to know that, some of this stuff would have just been tossed. And now it has new life And hopefully new owners that will love it and give it new stories,” Cohn said.