Jewelry made from 19th century clay pipes washed up on the Thames

Today I found myself at a street-market in Soho (the one in London), at a stall belonging to Amelia Parker, a jewelry maker who salvages fragments of century-old clay pipes from the banks of the Thames. Clay pipes were once the equivalent of cigarettes, cheap, semi-disposable tobacco-distribution systems, and as they were very brittle, they were tossed out by the tens of thousands, forming a lightweight layer of river detritus that still washes up on the riverbanks in London.

Amelia Parker

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: happy mutants • jewlery • london • makers • uk

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koko szanel

jevelry from trash?
so hot right now
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WE75bwDwVrU/ThzGRf15kEI/AAAAAAAAACc/JqcdUwFK5rM/s1600/9.jpg
Moriarty

I dunno, even if they are a hundred years old, it still seems like just draping yourself in cigarette butts.
- blueelm
  
  …
retepslluerb

So basically they are necklaces made from cigarette butts?
- zarray
  
  I was thinking necklaces made from crack pipes.
- RedShirt77
  
  Only instead of smelling like wet ash, it smells like river.
oschene

In my day, one would go to the publick and rent a 16-inch clay churchwarden for a ha’penny.
http://www.amazon.com/Churchwarden-Clay-Pipe-16/dp/B003NEZVSG
The fastidious would break off an inch or so and throw it in the fire. When the pipes got down to the last few inches, they were sold to the poor.
Sean Lally

Actually, you could still pick up a clay pipe at the local pub in the early 90s. The Falkland Arms (in Oxfordshire) had clay pipes available to the patrons.
http://noctilucent-studios.blogspot.com/ Noctilucent Studios

I have a whole 19th century clay pipe in one of my pieces, sort of set in a drawer full of other treasures. Can’t recall where I got it from originally. No idea they were so plentiful.
- Beanolini
  
  Broken pipes are very plentiful (I’ve found lots digging in the gardens of various houses I’ve lived in) but whole ones are not, as they were usually used till they broke, rather than being coddled and treasured.
  
  It is still possible to buy clay pipes. There are expensive accurate replicas for the reenacting scene, and cheap (about the price of a packet of fags) ones from specialist tobacconists.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Trent-Baker/100000123865597 Trent Baker

You see kids? You don’t need to recycle, because in a coupla hundred years someone is going to turn your trash into jewellery.
Pickleschlitz

Those would go great with a cigarette butt bracelet!
takurospirit

It’s good to recycle and all that, but that necklace kind of just looks like someone strung a bunch of tampons together to me.
- blueelm
  
  Tampon Necklace.
mastercontroller

I just really wouldn’t want wear something made from a porous material that’s been sitting in a garbage trench for 200 years.

I’m just thinking of all the toxins that have leeched into those… hell, kaolinite being mildly radioactive itself, I’d like to see someone sweep a geiger counter past those.

Just not something I’d want near my face, let along hanging around my neck.
- Bad Juju
  
  Better just stay inside. Wouldn’t want to breathe any of that dreadful London air, now would you..
Vickie Kostecki

Okay clearly I’m the only one that thinks this is cool. I went mudlarking the last time I was in London and picked up a few of these.
- http://www.facebook.com/people/Linda-Gustafson/689830773 Linda Gustafson
  
  I think they’re beautiful! And I love using things that have been touched (ok, even though sucked, yes it’s true), by people from previous centuries.
  - hazz
    
    Edit: I removed this response because, in hindsight, its sexual innuendo could have been taken badly, and I don’t want to make any boingboing users uncomfortable..
- http://twitter.com/ethanwc ethanwc
  
  So did I! As a Virginian, I couldn’t believe how lax the laws for mudlarking are in London. We literally found pieces of Roman tile that nobody cared about. I couldn’t find a complete pipe, unfortunately. I did find one mostly with the pot part.
  
  I plan on mudlarking everytime I go, now.
  - Phil Worthington
    
    You can probably dig in most backyards and find bits and pieces from the Roman era – the whole country’s built on broken pots and mosiacs I swear!
PinkWithIndignation

Someone call Regretsy!
http://www.facebook.com/dpease Dave Pease

not trying to buzzkill here but that jewelrys a lot more interesting than pretty
zarray

They visually remind me of wampum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wampum