FREE PEOPLE // BLDG 25 BLOG POST

As Part of her "Spring Trends: Adorning Ears" post for Bldg 25, Free People blogger Brigette included my Harpoon Earring and sent me a few fun questions for the post.  

Your Harpoon Earring is one of our favorites! If it had its own theme song, what would it be?Grimes’s “Genesis” would be a great theme song! The swinging movement in the Harpoon Earring reminds me of all the crazy hair extensions in that video.  

Is it true that your pieces are made mostly from reclaimed materials? Where do you find these?

Yup! I love using reclaimed/repurposed materials because it lessens Rackk & Ruin’s impact on the environment, and also because they can be an amazing source of inspiration! I’m always poking around flea markets and antique shops on the hunt for unique items that can be deconstructed and made into limited edition Rackk & Ruin pieces. I keep my eyes peeled for stamped metal banding, beaten up 1920s flapper bags with French steel cut beads, vintage findings, and anything that jumps out at me. If I come across an antique charm that’s too good to let go of I have it cast. I also use a lot of deadstock (unused vintage) brass chain left over from American factories that stopped producing after manufacturing moved overseas in the mid-1900s.  

What has been your proudest moment as a jewelry designer thus far?I’d say every time I teach myself a new metalsmithing technique or skill I’m pretty psyched. Being autodidactic means that a lot of trial and error goes into my design process. It was also totally amazing to find out that Zoe Kravitz wore a Rackk & Ruin earring to the Spring 2014 Chanel show… and being picked up by Free People of course! 

It’s 2pm on a Saturday… where can we expect to find you?Knee deep in endless kitchen demo/renovation projects. My boyfriend and I decided that completely gutting and rebuilding our kitchen in the middle of a Vermont winter was a great idea, so lately I’ve spent my weekends wandering the aisles of Lowes and picking paint out of my hair.

Below are a couple shots from my studio.