Copper cuff bracelet with Argentium Sterling silver hammered inlay, $85. The bits of silver that are hammered into the copper had been collecting for many months in a little jar in the jewelry assembly studio.

This pin (which I won't part with) started out as a scrap of copper that the metals teacher used to demonstrate the use of steel punches; it reminded me of grasses and rain or branches. I added the spiral "sun" to cover a dimple. Natural (rainbow) heat patination.

Asymmetrical brass cuff with copper wire. $50.From the outside this looks like it is made of 2 pieces of metal, but the inside view gives it away: (the two pieces of brass were left over from cutting sheet for another (still not finished) design.

The petals of this coneflower are the leftovers from a hollow cut out bead. Lying on my workspace they looked like flower petals.One of my favorite pins. At Wind Water and Light in Champaign, $48.

Heat-patinated copper pins, with impressions of garden thyme, $30 each. These bits of thyme-impressed copper were leftovers from bracelet bands (running a band of metal through the rolling mill makes it longer).

I found the polished piece of amazonite that forms the center of this brooch when I was cleaning out a drawer (no idea how it got there!) and "set" it in polymer clay. A vintage kind of look in a very modern material. $28.

This pendant uses a technique called "twisted-garbage snail' that Pier Voulkos taught us, to utilize scraps that accumulated in the Invisible Cane class at Ravensdale. (I love twisted-garbage; sounds like it should be a rock band!)

This is the first pieced switchplate--made of fragile or fragmenting first slices (you know, like first pancakes) of slab canes.

Southwestern colors, in a pattern reminiscent of ikat weaving. Sterling silver wires, $28. Almost all my ikat canes are made by repurposing veneer scraps.

Almost all of the Bottles of Hope are wabi-sabi.

I use copper to perfect wire designs and to measure the amount of material a piece requires, because it is exponentially more affordable than Sterling. Some of the links in this bracelet are recycled from decommissioned earrings (which were themselves made from trial designs). I bought the carnival glass beads at a bead show a few years ago, and they were perfect for this bracelet. SOLD

Sssshh! Don't tell anyone, but the raw material for this Natasha bead came from the pasta machine's collection.

Probably my absolute favorite piece of wabi-sabi so far. This is a T-shirt pin, made from 3 or 4 cane ends. Almost looks to me like it was ripped from a Van Gogh canvas. Private collection (mine).

I covered a pen for my daughter to replace one that was part of an exotic fur print desk set her grandmother gave her. These faux tigereye beads were made from the leftovers. At Wind, Water and Light, SOLD ($25. )

The materials for the floral and geometric details in greens, neutrals and periwinkle blue come from a cane end and bits of 2 canes from my first explorations in polymer clay. With coin-shaped freshwater pearls and sterling silver wires. SOLD ($28)

I'm keeping this pendant for myself. Yes, it's more wabi-sabi work--"what can I do with a 6" piece of twisted 14-gauge wire???"

I started to mush up the scraps from another pin, and this happened. How could I make something so beautiful into mud? $20.

Embedded in this brooch, along with a freshwater pearl with a flaw on one side, is a practice bit of "viking knit" wire. $28.

My first "reclamation" project. These polymer clay beads in a cherished bracelet are made from irregular bits left over from many intricate cane designs.