TalismanTreasures
Michelle Surrena
Junk is an art teacher’s best friend. Everyone has junk, but it akes a special eye to see beyond such unwanted items and give
them new purpose. This was the
essence of a lesson recently completed
with my jewelry/metals class.
Inspired by the
artwork of Barbara
Lenart Kazmer, who
incorporates found
objects into one-of-a-
kind pieces, students
created a bracelet or
necklace from found
objects. Prior to this lesson, students
had a basic understanding of wire
wrapping, drilling, riveting, and pati-
nas. This knowledge proved extremely
useful as students gave new life to
everyday objects such as keys, Barbie
shoes, coins, tubing, fuses, and soda
can tabs.
Junk Transformed
Students’ first challenge was to cre-
ate one charm using
materials from a
bag of objects. Each
bag contained a key,
a penny, a piece of
clear tubing, a paper
clip, a used gift card,
a safety pin, buttons,
a wooden spool, a washer, a bottle cap,
a word bead, a piece of ruler, and a
small piece of colored pencil.
Students gave new life
to everyday objects such
as keys, Barbie shoes,
coins, tubing, fuses,
and soda can tabs.
I divided the class into small
groups and each group was given a
specific item from the bag that they
were required to use as the focus of
their charm. It was fascinating to
witness the variety of charms, even
though students were using some of
the same materials. Finished sample
charms were strung on a wire as
examples so that all students could
see the variety and expected level of
artistry.
Creating Categories
With one charm completed and fifty
more to go, I found it necessary to
categorize the type of charms required
for the project. Charms were organized into five groups, and students
were required to create ten charms in
each of the following categories:
