Christine Terrell shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Good morning Christine , it’s such a great way to kick off the day – I think our readers will love hearing your stories, experiences and about how you think about life and work. Let’s jump right in? What is something outside of work that is bringing you joy lately?
I bought a couple of wood carving knives and a tiny Japanese saw earlier in the summer. I’ve been having so much fun wandering in the woods to find fallen branches to cut into short lengths to bring home and play around learning how to carve spoons, coat hooks and other simple objects. Shaping the wood is such a satisfying and meditative process.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
For over two decades I’ve spent much of every day transforming discarded decorative tin containers into art and jewelry. Printed tin is filled with all sorts of beautiful colors, lovely patterns and interesting imagery, all of which speaks to my graphic designer soul. I love searching for tins in thrift stores and junk shops and, even though I have more tin than I could ever use in one lifetime, I continue to scout for them wherever I go. I think a lot about the life stories of these tins and love that their energy becomes part of the story in the art and jewelry I create. Using quiet, sustainable practices, I design and fabricate pieces by hand utilizing simple heritage hand tools and classic cold connection techniques.
Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
Actually, I’ve never been someone who listened to the world. Even in high school, arguably the part of our life we feel the most pressure to assimilate, I was happily an outsider. I was friendly with everyone, but didn’t ‘belong’ to any particular clique. I’m perfectly content going my own way and doing my own thing. In the last few years I’ve been deeply studying Human Design and through that lens I can now see the Individual energy that is so prominent in my design. It helped me understand and provided some confirmation for this inner knowing I’ve always had that it feels awful when I try to ‘fit in’ or do things the way other people do. Though I’m sure there are many aspects of myself that are deeply affected by the conditioning of modernity, as much as possible, I have always followed my own inner compass.
Is there something you miss that no one else knows about?
I grew up in Maine about an hour from the coast. In the summer my dad would often take my brother and I down to the beach and then we would stop at a local lobster shack on the dock. While we were waiting for food we could climb down under the dock to look for sea urchin shells. I remember them being such beautiful, magical objects. Due to climate issues, overfishing and environmental degradation, sea urchins are mostly gone along the Maine coast. I miss that I can no longer find these beautiful remains, but am more deeply saddened by the fact that other children won’t ever have the pleasure of finding these lovely treasures from the sea. This summer I started making little sea urchin earrings as an homage to those lost beings and the sweet memories they hold for me.
I think our readers would appreciate hearing more about your values and what you think matters in life and career, etc. So our next question is along those lines. What are the biggest lies your industry tells itself?
Though I don’t really identify as part of it, the jewelry industry is a particularly extractive and exploitative one. Precious gems and metals are fraught with so much environmental and societal degradation, but, like most things in our late stage capitalist world, the deep costs of these toxic processes are largely hidden. Which is particularly ironic given the shiny, blingy, showy nature of jewelry. My particular jewelry practice is intentionally not big, showy or extractive. I love working with an upcycled, ‘base’ metal like tin (which is printed sheet steel) and early on decided to not use silver or gold in my work. Part of what I’m doing in my work is demonstrating that beauty can be found in all sorts of places and encourage others to think about reimagining existing materials rather than extracting more virgin substances from the earth.
Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. What do you understand deeply that most people don’t?
I know in my bones that we are here on this planet to do just one thing–be and love our truest self. I call it being the YOUest you. That’s it. However, that is not at all what we are taught in modernity. We’re currently running an experiment that has filled our lives with meaningless distractions—money, cars, houses, jobs, possessions, ambitions—things. Martin Buber said, ‘People were created to be loved. Things were created to be used. Most of our troubles come from the fact that we love things, and use people.’ I feel like we are slowly waking up to this fact and reorienting back to prioritizing our relationship to ourselves and others.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.adaptivereuser.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christineterrell/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/adaptivereuser/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@christineterrell
