An idea and a leap of faith led business partners Tina Fink and Ron Johnson down a new career path — creating jewelry and other items from vintage flatware and coins.
Fink said it’s been rewarding to find unique pieces and then a new home for them. One customer who spotted a bracelet made from a spoon, with Mickey Mouse etched in the handle, recognized the spoon from childhood.
“Not only are we selling the jewelry, we’re helping to resell the memories,” she said.
It’s the second year for Saltsburg-based business Treasures Remade to participate in the West- moreland Arts & Heritage Festival, which is one of about 30 shows it does around the country annually.
A few other crafters participating in the event at Twin Lakes Park east of Greensburg followed a similar method of creativity.
One vendor created artwork out of an old guitar and another turned old wooden windows into home decor. The repurposing allows customers to appreciate something old in a different way.
Some were doing just that with the triangular decorative trees Lynn Davidson repurposes out of vintage doors, latches, knobs, hooks, mail slots and handles.
“We save them from the landfills and the fire pits,” Davidson said.
Stinkin’ Cute Trees, based near Monaca, started in 2019 after Davidson asked her husband to make something she saw on the Internet. She loved it and, turns out, others did, too.
Davidson travels the country with her husband buying vintage doors and the metal pieces that come with them. As business grew, she left her job as a nurse.
“It is fun,” she said. “I never in my life thought this would be a business.”
Johnson had a similar experience.
After first buying Fink a piece of jewelry made from a spoon, “I went, ‘I can do that,’” Fink said.
“And then we started making them, and it’s, like, now what do we do with them?” she said.
Seven years ago, they started small at local farmer’s markets and found the hobby was lucrative. They scour antique stores and estate sales for flatware and coins with unique designs or a figure etched into the handle, like the Tony the Tiger turned into a ring that a customer bought Saturday.
“We’re looking for unique stuff,” Johnson said.
When they find it, every part gets used. Tines from forks are turned into earrings and the bowl of spoons are flattened and transformed into melodic wind chimes.
“We’re trying not to waste,” Fink said. “It’s just seeing things differently.”
Pamela Heller often has to tell her customers to look a little closer when they’re perusing her glass flowers.
“They don’t even realize they’re looking at vintage glassware,” she said.
Heller fits varying sizes and shapes of glassware together like petals to repurpose old items into something that can be displayed outdoors with the help of a stake and copper stem and leaves. Hempfield-based Ladybug Glass Garden Art participated in its first festival this year, but has been appearing at markets around the area since last year.
She’s constantly looking for unique pieces that would otherwise spend their days tucked away in a china cabinet or stored in a box. Customer sometimes recognize a piece from their childhood.
“It’s a constant treasure hunt,” Heller said.
