Friday, January 16, 2009

Go for the green

Restructured jewelry makes a splash

---

By DANA DUGAN
Express Staff Writer

Ring by Monica Macha Photo by

Vintage jewelry has a certain appeal to those of us who are retro minded. But for many others, a contemporary tweak is the best thing that could happen to some of their grandmother's old gems.

Boise artist Monica Macha specializes in wearable pieces of altered art from collections of vintage and estate jewelry. Macha, a former resident of the Wood River Valley, considers her work "green" since it's the ultimate in reusable work. It's art and it's fashion. Macha's line of jewelry, dubbed The M Line, is available at Urban Minx in Ketchum, urbanminx.com and Miss Molly Boutique in Boise. She will have a trunk show at Urban Minx on Sun Valley Road in Main Street, beginning at 5 p.m. Saturday, Jan 17.

As a green business, the M Line is an "opportunity to create an identity of excellence without superfluous waste," she said. "Jewelry is an ongoing process."

To find the pieces from which she builds her modernized pieces, she searches in antique stores, estate sales, garage sales and thrift shops for jewelry.

buy viagra buy viagra usa buy viagra online

This is not her first foray into reuse and redesign. In 2005, she invented and received a patent for her product Drape Couture, a drapery panel that reverses through an opening in the lining.