Bike shop trash is my treasure
Hi - I’m Becky Tesch, and I have always made things. When I was little I made dollhouse furniture and gifts of jewelry, scrunchies, ornaments, greeting cards and etc. for friends and family. As I grew up I experimented with all kinds of things, and got more and more into making things out of found objects, especially during a few years spent in a small desert town with little else to do but ride bikes and make art. When we moved back to Wisconsin, I started refining my bicycle jewelry work and selling at craft fairs. People loved the work and it sold and sold and sold. I picked up retailers faster than I could make work, so I left the corporate world in 2013 to build up the jewelry business with the time and energy it deserves rather than fitting it into my ultra limited “free time.”
My Etsy shop is something that I’m going to amp up now that I have more time. It shows the best of my earrings, which are nearly always OOAK, and the rubber cuff bracelets and necklaces.
A little about my work process:
I am spontaneous when I first crete pieces, and I frequently make unique new pieces. But once I’ve come up with a design that sells well, and I decide that I don’t want to re-photograph it every time I list one on ETSY, I start to be more precise with production of that piece.
When I make a rubber necklace, I select a whole tube that fits the length and width that I want for that piece and I start cutting it into strips. The width and shape of the cuts is left to my heart and hands. I don’t think too much, I try to shut off the chatter in my head and just let the creativity flow out of me however it feels it wants to that day. Sometimes the pieces are super thin, sometimes thicker, sometimes wavy, sometimes leaf shapes, but usually different leaf shapes. sometimes they're large, sometimes small, sometimes a mix. Sometimes I cut into the edges and make them feathery, and etc. Once I have enough strips, I drape them on a dress form and arrange and trim the pieces to fit my vision. When they’re nicely composed, I then wrap and tie up the back to keep the pieces in place as I composed them. Then they get their photo taken and they get a price tag, and bam, it’s on to the next one!
The cuff bracelets with the cut outs are a similar process. cut the tube to size, punch end holes, cut the center and then just cut the leaves in a radiating shape until they reach the end! They’re a meditative pleasure to hand cut and people love them. They look great!
Some of my pieces look pretty modern and new, but old industrial buildings and items are often my inspiration. Also inspiring are things with wear and tear, the markings of use, time passing and rust and decay. I just love big rusty old machine parts, and architectural salvage and etc. Bicycle parts are smaller, wearable versions of those things. They are also lovely and well designed to be efficient, manufacturable, light and durable. Things that were designed during the industrial revolution, purely to function in big machines are often strikingly beautiful to look at. I believe austere design driven purely by function creates a unique beauty. Old gears, handles, chains, etc. I love it that the design of the physical form was driven by functionality and machinability and reproductive ease, and even cost efficiency, and came out so beautiful. I’m a little sad that these things that inspire me are relics of the past only and I fear that the things we make today will not be so inspirational for generations to come. I cannot imagine that old plastic parts and disposable junk that is made today will be as loved as old rusty steel gears. Nothing is really built to last anymore. Despit that, nearly all waste inspires me and alternately makes me sad. It disgusts me that we waste so much, but also motivates me to be a force that works in the other direction, to divert from the waste stream, to make my living off of the surplus of our society and benefit from the excess while helping the environment.
Thanks for reading and supporting the work!