Pixel Tracking

Born Again

Date: 01-09-2022
Success Story

 

Nikki Price

Nikki Price has a huge passion for upcycling. Her goal with her art is to give new life to unloved vintage items and turn them into unique pieces of wearable art. She loves to repurpose materials as much as she can, only purchasing new when she absolutely has to.

Nikki says enthusiastically, “Much of my ‘jewellery-joy’ is in the hunt.” She scours op shops, second hand stores and garage sales looking for silver-plate cutlery and serving trays with intricate imprinted designs as well as vintage China.

“I get immense pleasure from telling my customers what their piece was in its previous life,” Nikki says proudly.

Nikki has always had an entrepreneurial flair. In 2004 she developed and launched a range of ‘Modern Cloth Nappies’, utilising hemp and bamboo fabrics.

Her first forays into jewellery making came in 2014, starting at the very bottom of the learning curve with crude beading mixed with vintage tableware, evolving from creating craft items - bird feeders, hurricane lanterns and unique clothing, all sold at local craft markets.

With no formal training, and thanks to watching hours of YouTube videos, she refined her techniques which she adapted to use with her basic tools.

Nikki says, “Over the last 8 years my techniques and materials have improved significantly. My standards are high, and it gives me great pleasure to create art from used and vintage items to which I have given new life.”

Nikki continues, “I now feel confident enough in my finishing skills to incorporate elements of my Maori heritage into some of my pieces and do justice to the designs that have traditionally been carved in wood and stone.”

Nikki has recently begun to work with sterling silver. She says, “I love it immensely. Where possible I will use second hand or vintage silver. Most silver I find is no longer usable in its current state, allowing me to melt it and craft it as I see fit. The main focus with anything I create is to upcycle, no matter what the metal or medium is.”

Nikki adds, “It is a huge honour to be asked to make pieces from much loved family items, turning them into keepsakes for all in that family to enjoy.”

­­­Of the future, Nikki says, “My aim is to be able to bundle all my worldly possessions into my home and workshop on wheels, creating from the inspirations of the new things and places I see, and experience along the way. To this end I am working towards more manual techniques rather than relying on powered tools as this aligns with my ethos of minimal impact and reusing the resources that we have readily available.”

Connect with Nikki:

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Nikki Price  Nikki Price

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