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About BPJ
As I've been updating my website today, it occured to me that I've not shared the story of how Bike Part Jewelry got started.
In early 2009 I received a gorgeous gift - an anklet made from a bike chain. It was around this time that I had started mountain biking, so I was learning about my bike, how to take care of it and how to use the tools in my pack. The anklet was a tad too big, so I decided to learn how to use my chain tool to take a link out and make it smaller. I took that link out, ran up the street to my local bead store and put the link on a bracelet.
That was the start of me making jewelry with bicycle parts.
After that, getting used bike parts was easy...at that time, I was taking lots of photos for TORC, Triangle Off-Road Cyclists and got to meet a bunch of people in the biking community. I went around to the bike shops in my area and got a ton of used parts. I was also introduced to bike parts I didn't even know I could use; things like spoke nipples, caged bearings, brake washers...really anything I could find. Some of those things I had to order new as used ones were either too scratched to use or I couldn't find them in large enough quantities. To this day, the majority of my bicycle parts are recycled from used items headed to the landfill. I like knowing that I am doing some small part to help the recycling effort.
My jewelry has progressed from the beaded work I did at the beginning to techniques I find to be much more my style, that being chain maille. I love the intricacies of all the different patterns I can learn, and the way those patterns fit with bike parts.
Recently I decided to start making chain maille clothing such as skirts, halters, belts and bras. I've made a halter, which is awesome. :) I have started a very intricate and time consuming skirt, which will be beautiful once it's finished. Most items will have my signature bike parts worked into them.
I continue to love what I do and do what I love.
Thanks for stopping by.
Jodey