My friend Matt Cole has long made the silver beads that I use in my jewelry creations. His silver bead company, IndoExpo, creates my favorite beads and clasps, hand down.
He now lives in the Midwest with his wife and little boy and has been designing sterling silver beads and jewelry for years.
Matt has now taken his life-long love of bowling to a new level — creating a unique line of jewelry with discarded bowling balls that would ordinarily be destined for a land fill. How cool is that?
I love that he’s making beautiful beads out of a recycled material, and an unusual one at that. I also love his attention to detail. I love how some of his recycled bowling ball jewelry looks like miniature bowling balls! Imagine showing up on league night with these dangling from your ears! You’d think they’d be heavy, but once cut down to bead size, they’re incredibly lightweight.
You can visit Matt Cole’s recycled bowling ball jewelry site by clicking http://www.matt-cole.com/. Tell him Lori sent you, and that she said the jewelry would “bowl you over”!
(Ha ha — see what I did there?)
Alice
March 10, 2011 at 2:49 pmAmazing! What a great story!
Roberta
March 10, 2011 at 3:51 pmWow! So clever! It must take some heavy equipment though to shape those little suckers!
Polymer clay is so much easier…..
Dave Robertson
March 10, 2011 at 5:48 pmAha! Someone finally blogged about bowlerite! I hafta tell my boss about this, he's always claimed he has beads made from this "gemstone" 🙂 Very fun…
–Dave at Rings & Things
[which is hitting the road for our spring Bead Show Tour!]
Pretty Things
March 10, 2011 at 6:29 pmThey're actually about as light as polymer clay — I have some! I'm not sure what he uses to cut them, but they're neat little things!
Janet
March 10, 2011 at 8:21 pmSuch a great idea and they are wonderful beads! His materials would last forever!!
Evie's Tool Emporium
March 10, 2011 at 9:26 pmWow! Who knew? Thank you for sharing!
Mylene
March 10, 2011 at 11:02 pmRecycled bowling balls? I would never have guessed. What a creative idea.
KellieBellieVaughan
March 11, 2011 at 4:28 amThis is fantastic. I love making art out of recycled materials too!!! thanks for the Great story
Anna Lear
March 11, 2011 at 5:11 pmWonderful!! I always loved the colors and swirls of bowling balls as a kid; those swirly purple earrings in the pic really take me back in time! I'd love to find out where to get some of these beads. Thanks for sharing this totally cool info!
My Life Under the Bus
March 12, 2011 at 2:06 pmThat is the coolest thing ever and what a great way to recycle!!!
roseworksjewelry
March 14, 2011 at 7:59 pmThat's so cool!