Rouge, Itching Powder, Salve, and a Litttle Elbow Grease - The Making of a Locket

It takes a lot of thought, effort, and sometimes even goo to get materials from Point A to a completed necklace. Making lockets out of vintage tins and rouge compacts is a real labor of love.

Light Hearted

insides

Open Upon Arrival

insides

It starts with sourcing carefully chosen materials from every place you can imagine. Finding old tins and compacts in great condition can be a challenge. Once I have a nice-sized batch of supplies, it's time to get messy.

a beautiful mess

The old containers come from the early 1900's to the 1950's. Along with them comes a bevy of intriguing contents including: old salves, rouges, balms, powders, cosmetics, antique ointments, mysterious smells, and goop of all sorts. Step one: remove contents. This is by far the messiest part. It involves carefully scooping, shaking, wiping, washing, scrubbing, rinsing, and repeating many times. Some materials even require extra polishing and a bit of repair before they are ready for the next step.

yucky bear

soaking

one of many washings

Miette is in charge of quality control.

Once all the pieces are squeaky clean, it's time to create!

lockets to be

Some tins get bails attached while others are mounted atop of vintage findings. Chains are carefully selected to match the locket.  And then, the magic happens. Tiny treasures like brooches, brass stampings, old toys, buttons, vintage ephemera, and cameos are carefully assembled to create miniature pieces of art inside each locket.

locket ingredients

What will become of these tins and compacts? You will have to visit me at The Brewery during Jamaica Plain Open Studios to see! Enjoy a lovely fall stroll while visiting studios during this family-friendly event. Click here for a map and more info.

Here are a few of my upcoming fall/winter shows. More dates will be added soon.

September 22 & 23 - Jamaica Plain Open Studios

October 6 & 13 - Greenway Open Market

December 8 & 9 - SoWa Holiday Market