Teresa Harwood-Lynn

I did not start out to be a jeweller, I started out with a metal detector trying to find treasure buried beneath the earth.

One day, while sifting through the various scraps of metal she had found, Teresa knew she had to do something with her ever-growing stash. Her obsession with detecting would soon turn into an obsession for jewellery.

In a small room at the back of her house – home to the furnace – Teresa digs through her collection looking for inspiration. A scrap of copper pitted and worn is quite literally beaten into submission before a piece of jewellery begins to emerge.

Teresa makes jewellery from her metal detecting treasures and finds from garage sales, local thrift stores, and family heirlooms clients give her to repurpose.

I admit my inclination to recycle metal into jewellery was more out of a desperate need to do something with my vast collection, than about saving the planet. So to discover that jewellery can be environmentally friendly, local and sustainable makes the creating all that much sweeter.

Teresa uses a process called water casting, where scrap silver is heated in a crucible with a torch. When the metal is red and molten it is then poured into a bucket of cold water. Water casting is about 1/3 skill, 2/3rds chance sloshed and melted together with no two pieces ever the same.