3xr2107 - Reduce, Reuse and Recycle Challenge

Shall I give you some secrets from the life of a goldsmith?

Every time I create a wonderful piece of jewelery, a heap of precious metal remains.
Too expensive to throw it away; Too big to melt. And at all, maybe I still need that!

Every time I visit a trade fair or a stone merchant, the hunter and collector awakens in me.
There are so wonderful stones and stone chains. And immediately something comes to mind, which I can work from it.
But later in the workshop, I am certainly missing a completely different stone, which fits the latest piece of jewelery.

 
Not every time, but often enough, a piece of jewelry remains unfinished.
I call it "Lost Pieces" - in line with the “Lost Places”. They share the fate of the abandoned houses: Once designed with enthusiasm and animated with passion to a workpiece, is somewhere and sometime drained the life out of the metal.

Something is missing, perhaps a last piece of material, which is not in stock. Or the final touch, a suitable idea for the complete piece. Or just the right - the matching stone.

And really, it looks like this in every jewelry workshop. Although - probably everyone who works creatively will now say: I have such collections, too.

The Etsy Metal Team is facing the challenge this year again:

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle 

From reduction to recycling, all the rests should be reused, which has accumulated.
It´s an individual challenge. There are no other rules. Everyone decides what works for him.
I will try to create 52 projects. One for each week.

Finished pieces can be found under the hashtag #3xr and 3xr2017 on Instagram and Co. Visit our group account. 

What has accumulated with you? Write in the comments how you want to process these treasures this year.