SPECIAL EVENT

Community Jewelry Mining Project Comes to Santa Fe, NM

The Wheelwright is pleased to partner with the Institute of American Indian Arts; the Santa Fe Community College School of Arts and Design; New Mexico State University, Las Cruces; the University of Texas, El Paso; and Ethical Metalsmiths to bring Radical Jewelry Makeover to Santa Fe.

Ethical Metalsmiths is an artist-run non-profit organization whose mission is to encourage social change that values jewelry made with ethically sourced materials. They do this by educating people about irresponsible mining, promoting transparency in jewelry supply chains, and highlighting the collective efforts of jewelers who are actively changing their practices. Ethical Metalsmiths envisions a world in which people can create and enjoy jewelry made with materials from responsible sources that protect and sustain the earth, its peoples, and cultures.

Radical Jewelry Makeover is a traveling community mining and recycling project developed by Ethical Metalsmiths. Members of RJM’s host community are invited to "mine" their homes, "uncovering" gold, silver, and other jewelry that is no longer in use, and to deposit (donate) their "lode" at a designated drop-off site. Radical Jewelry Makeover accepts all kinds of jewelry, from gold rings to plastic bangle bracelets, single earrings to sorority pins. This material is sorted and distributed, and then re-made into wonderful new creations by student and professional jewelers. The program encourages participants to consider the social and environmental impacts of mining and jewelry production and presents an alternative to commercial mining and manufactured jewelry. RJM draws public attention to the creativity and skills of local jewelers, reveals the stories behind our personal collections, and encourages us to reconsider our habits of consumption. Funds raised through the sale of “Madeover” jewelry help to cover the costs of running RJM.

Since its launch in 2007, Radical Jewelry Makeover has reached thousands of people. Venues have included Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond; Millersville University, Lancaster, PA; Penland School of Crafts, NC; and in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Academy of Art University, California College of Art, City College, The Crucible, Revere Academy, Richmond Art Center, Scintillant Studio, The Metal Arts Guild, and Velvet da Vinci Gallery. In 2010 RJM traveled to Australia where it was hosted by Queensland College of Art at Griffith University in Brisbane, and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) featured RJM in its Jewellery Practice as a Site for Enquiry Seminar.

For more about Ethical Metalsmiths and RJM,
visit the following links:

ethicalmetalsmiths.org
radicaljewelrymakeover.blogspot.com
youtube.com
unitedstatesartists.org 
americancraftmag.org
artjewelryforum.org