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Where you and I might just see an old piece of furniture, Mavis Beard sees bracelets, necklaces and earrings.
Since starting her reconstructed vintage jewelry line in January, the artist found inspiration in unlikely places, including drawer pulls, door knockers and hotel key tags.
Her one-of-a-kind creations incorporate architectural finds as well as reworked ornamental accessories, including eyeglass frames, watch chains, cameos and whistles, with prices in the $65-$175 range.
“I've always liked old things,” Beard, 48, said recently in her dining room, which doubles as her workspace. “I'd rather wear a $300 antique ring than a $3,000 modern ring any day. I like the history behind things. If it's beautiful, I don't want to see it go to waste.”
Beard will have a trunk show 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday at Boris & Natasha, 1214 Thomas Ave.
Don't be fooled by her five-acre farm in rural Stanley, northwest of Charlotte. Or how she gushes about her “babies” – two horses, two goats, three cats and two dogs.
She doesn't have a formal fine arts background. But what Beard modestly calls a “good eye” for vintage treasures is more akin to informed, purposeful knowledge.
She's educated herself on materials used in creating old jewelry and knows a good deal when she sees one (brass is getting harder to find as more people are looking for vintage jewelry). For about two years, she had been buying and reselling antique jewelry on eBay when the creation bug bit.
She and husband Rick had taken ownership of an assortment of items after the passing of his grandmother. In the mix was a “shoe buckle” that caught Beard's eye.
“I said ‘I bet I can make something out of this,'” she said. She watched a video on jewelry making and turned that shoe castoff into a bracelet. Beard's vision was taking shape.
“I see just about anything and think ‘Oh that's pretty, will it bend?'”
Her technical skills are on the rise – she's now the proud owner of a drill, and is a soldering student under the direction of her father-in-law.
“I'm hesitant to tear some things up,” she says. “I just don't have the heart to take some things apart.”
But when she does, the results are striking and throughly modern. There are watches with inverted faces (so the cogs show through the glass), stunning multi-strand necklaces and inventive uses of architectural salvage that look straight off the pages of Harper's Bazaar and InStyle ( two of the magazines Beard reads to stay up on trends).
Beard has a few local spots she visits for materials, she says. “I like to hand-select my antiques… (most things) when I buy them, I don't know how I'll use them. There's not any part of a watch chain that I can't or don't use.”
Rachel Sutherland: 704-358-5440; rsutherland@charlotteobserver.com
