Jean Rubin

Biking has been a big part of my life for well over 10 years now. I started out mountain biking - swooping through the trees, over those roots & rocks that make mtbing in the New England so exciting! - but in the last two years, I've really been enjoying road biking too. Pedaling on the country roads that take you past the farms and orchards (there are still some here in southern NH) can be so soothing. This summer I took a part time job at a small, local bike shop and I was thinking about what to do with all the old bicycle parts that were getting thrown away. I took those parts and some old beads I had hanging around and started putting them together. I like the industrial look of the hard metal parts combined with the bright colors of the beads. It has been so much fun taking all those grimy, greasy little bits and pieces and turning them into lovely, wearable jewelry. I get a kick when someone will say that they like the bracelet I'm wearing; I'll thank them, and then say I make it out of an old bicycle chain, or an old bicycle spoke, and they lean forward to get a better look & say Oh wow! That's a bike chain?! Awesome!