YHS ART STUDENTS TURN "JUNK" INTO JEWELRY

Students in the second-year art class at Yosemite High School have recently completed a unit on jewelry making. The students created their pieces from old jewelry collected over the years by their teacher, Rivka Schaffner.

Miss Schaffner said the project was a real success and she would like to be able to have students work on this every year. In order to do that, she is seeking help from the public.

She spent over three years collecting boxes of costume jewelry and "junk jewelry" for this year’s project. Friends donated items to her, she purchased pieces at garage sales and flea markets, but still it took three years.

She is asking that anyone who has any type of jewelry they no longer use to consider donating it to the students. The students can use anything: plastic, glass, metal jewelry; leather watch bands; earrings; broken necklaces.

The centerpiece of each project this year is a matchbook that the students painted in the Jackson Pollock drip and splash style of abstract expressionism. From that beginning, they created necklaces, bracelets, anklets and more.

"There were no limits to the project," Miss Schaffner said. "The students were free to be totally creative."

Anyone who has jewelry items they would be willing to donate to the art students can contact Miss Schaffner at 683-4667 extension 273.

At some time in the future, the pieces of jewelry the students made will be displayed at the MET Cinema.

The jewelry pictured above was made by Susan Ellis, a YHS sophomore, and Nick Halsing, a YHS senior.