Repurposing With a Purpose

Located smack dab in the middle of the market and all its hubbub, Teresa Graham and Lee Uhelski’s booth is a smorgasbord of eccentricity and elegance, where camp and kitsch meet classiness. While you might find 10-inch plastic skeletons-turned-earrings, wearing top hats and holding champagne in their bony hands, or a charm bracelet made from Monopoly pieces, you could also find an old watch that’s now a fancy necklace or a vintage cameo converted to a locket.

Browse through the earrings hanging from Bingo cards, bowls full of rings and piles of baubles spread across the tables, and you’ll discover one of the most fun booths at the market.

The ladies met 30 years ago at a craft show, and they’ve been friends and co-crafters ever since, naming their business Classy Chick Remade.

Uhelski specializes in what she calls “very unusual earrings, [bracelets and necklaces], made out of anything and everything,” and Graham calls her jewelry “embellished vintage” and likes to create “something unique, old, funky, clever.”

The two scour thrift stores, antique shops, yard sales and flea markets to find old or broken jewelry, watches that no longer tick, maybe an isolated earring that’s lost its partner — “stuff that people toss,” Graham says. Then they repurpose it to create new jewelry pieces. They’re adopting sad, forsaken jewelry, bringing it back from the brink of doom and giving it a new lease on life, readying it for a new home with one of their market faithful (these ladies have a slew of regular and loyal customers).

“We have thousands of parts — chains, beads, stones. You start using those pieces, and your mind gets creative with it,” Graham says.

Uhelski even buys dollhouse miniatures and random trinkets to transform into new designs. “I love looking at things and thinking, how can I make that into earrings?” she says.

They spend up to 50 hours a week creating their jewelry, setting up and taking down their booth and selling at the market. And for Uhelski, that’s on top of a full-time teaching job.

But they say it’s worth it. They both enjoy the creativity of jewelry making, love the people they meet and are grateful for the customers who appreciate and buy their pieces.

“Our stuff is very different. I think there’s something for pretty much everybody,” Uhelski says. “If you can’t find it in our booth, I don’t know where you’ll find it.”