you can find me online at:

www.markhed.etsy.com

www.markheddesign.com

My passions are for jewelry and design. While the past seven years of my creative life have been dominated by architecture, jewelry has crept into my life and captured my heart (and evenings) over the last years. It has made me realize that the handcrafted object is something of great value that we have forgotten in our society.

I enjoy using many different methods to create beautiful and affordable objects to wear, while contributing to the renewal of the forgotten handcrafted arts.

To begin with, I re-use discarded metal items to create many different types of jewelry. For example, as you can see when looking at my piece "dirt key", I transformed an old key into a pendant by cutting a pattern into it and wire-wrapping freshwater beads onto it.

Metals are not the only materials I like to re-use. My most recent project (please see newsprint pendant) involves making translucent newsprint necklaces with old microfiches of the New York times.

I find the act of bringing new value to something seen as worthless an exciting concept. As technology continues to change rapidly, the items we discard seem to increase tenfold. Reuse is my reaction to this culture of disposal.

I complement this recycled fashion with some labor intensive pieces begun from scratch. For these I use a variety of materials, from precious metals such as silver and gold to brass and copper. These projects offer me a playground for the expression of my own aesthetic.