2002: i found this bottlecap in the street here in brooklyn in front of our apartment building. smashed and with its fancy scalloped edges i drilled a hole in it to make this necklace for gcs on her birthday. i chose to use the clear glass beads that had broken off of one of my favorite antique czech glass necklaces. upon stringing i realized that i had one less clear bead than i needed for its symmetry. i fretted not even a moment and reached for a round amber bead to complete the strand.
cut to two years later:
i was brain storming for ways to raise money to pay my medical bills upon the news of a bc diagnoses when uninsured. i had applied for financial aid at the hospital that i was planning to have surgery and we were waiting to find out just how much the surgery and possible adjuct therapy was going to cost. anyway, i was in g's bedroom chatting while she was cleaning, putting away laundry or dressing- i don't even remember really but we were chatting and i was going through her jewelry and i came across this necklace.
cut to later that day:
it came to me that i could start making jewelry to generate some extra cash flow and i would start with these "rebel" necklaces. there was something charmimgly spontaneous about it's style; tender in it's crafty, "outsiderish/found objectishness". i never imagined that i'd make jewelry. i'm a painter, not a jeweler. in order to bring meaning to my mission i decided that the necklaces would have eight beads on them- with one bead of the eight being a pink bead to represent the 2004 statistic "one in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer". i ran next door to g's to share the idea and to borrow the necklace as a prototype. it was then that i realized that the beading on the necklace, that i had made two years prior, had 7 clear glass beads and 1 amber. rebel1in8 was born in 2002. i caught up with it in 2004.
ReBEl LoVE transcends diamonds and gold. 
