When Ridwell generously donated 19 boxes of jewelry to Piece by Piece, instructor Bea Jones didn’t just see discarded accessories—she saw treasure. With a passion for turning the unexpected into art, Bea used this donation as the spark for an imaginative workshop centered on steampunk.
What is Steampunk?
Steampunk is a genre and aesthetic that blends Victorian-era fashion and technology with elements of science fiction and fantasy. Picture clockwork gadgets, airships, and vintage goggles—all powered by steam. It's a world where history meets imagination, and where everything looks like it was crafted in a workshop full of gears, brass, and wonder. Think 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea meets Mad Max with a Victorian twist.
Bea first stumbled across steampunk while browsing YouTube for artistic inspiration. Intrigued, she began researching the style’s origins and visual storytelling, then set out to design a class that brought those ideas to life. She ordered supplemental materials—tiny wheels, gears, clock parts, vintage decals—and combined them with the jewelry donated by Ridwell.
About Ridwell:
Ridwell is a sustainability-focused company that helps households reduce waste by collecting hard-to-recycle items like batteries, textiles, and even broken jewelry. Their partnership with Piece by Piece is a perfect match—offering materials a second life while supporting our social enterprise. Their donation of 19 boxes of jewelry opened the door to a whole new artistic adventure for our community.
The workshop became a playground for creativity. Artists drew on their mosaic experience—skills in arrangement, balance, and storytelling—to bring their steampunk creations to life. Using familiar tools in a new way, they reimagined jewelry as tiny canvases for layered, textured designs. You can truly see the artists’ voices shine through in some of the finished pieces, where tiny gears meet bits of chain and vintage decals to tell new stories.
This wasn’t just a lesson in technique. It was a celebration of reinvention—of seeing beauty in the overlooked, value in the discarded, and possibility in every piece. Thank you to Bea Jones for leading this fun day, and thank you to Ridwell for making it possible. See more photos from this Steampunk Jewelry adventure here.