I love being creative and being a girl I LOVE wearing jewellery! I collect some interesting items when I work and I try to recycle what I can to make cufflinks and various other jewellery. Just to clarify I collect the relatively CLEAN stuff. Not used pan rubbers or anything that could have been covered in effluent!!
The jobs where a client asks us to replace their old hob set taps to a brand new set OR reconfigure to a basin mixer are usually the best jobs to collect items from because generally the taps are well worn, but the hot and cold buttons that screw into the top of the handles can be in fairly good condition. Unfortunately in most cases they can no longer fit into other taps, so I keep them, get my husband to grind their backs down flat and then attach them to stainless steel cufflink backs. I sell my cufflinks on my Made It store through my Styled by Bec business. I would have sold them under my Plumbette name, but I already had a store open through Styled by Bec and chose to sell them under that name.
I have HEAPS of ideas on how to convert old plumbing fittings and fixtures into art – whether it be jewellery or homewares, but I don’t have a big enough house to store all the parts, nor do I have the time at present to do it. But the cufflinks are a fairly easy project. The only hard part is collecting them and usually the buttons are one of a kind so they are hard to come across over and over again. Most of the buttons do have indentations from wear and tear but this adds to their ‘retro, recycled vintage’ appeal.
If you are a late Christmas shopper, feel free to check out my Made It store here. At present, I have a 25% off sale on all my stock to make way for new items in the New Year.
