Empowering Detroit women through graffiti jewelry

upamfva · 22-12-2021 04:45:30

Her power tool buzzed as she shaped the pendent for a new line coming from Rebel Nell, a company that employs disadvantaged women in Detroit to craft jewelry out of fallen graffiti.To get more news about 3d jewelry design, you can visit jewelryhunt.net official website.

Today, Caldwell can point to any necklace and tell you its origin: psychedelic patterns (the Alley Project); less vibrancy (the Dequindre Cut); white-washed with pastels (Flint Rock).

But four years ago, the Detroit native was laid off from a Highland Park factory, where she repaired car seat covers. She faced a custody battle for her two children and things got “a little bit rocky” living with her mother, so she sought refuge at the COTS homeless shelter.

In need of a job, Caldwell applied to the Empowerment Plan, which employs women from shelters to sew coats that turn into sleeping bags for the homeless. They turned her down.“I was a little bit heartbroken, but the same day, someone — I still don’t know who it was — saw me in passing and noticed the jewelry I was wearing,” says Caldwell, who’d make jewelry for women in the shelter “to give them love.” “Someone told the social worker at COTS that I would be a good fit for a position at Rebel Nell.”
The 38-year-old started as a creative designer and was promoted to production manager. Instead of seat covers, she repairs and designs necklaces, bracelets and earrings.
Her sister couldn’t agree more. Azzie Caldwell, 36, spent four years in prison. After being released, she worked long hours washing hotel laundry and lived in a halfway house.

However, her life turned around when Rebel Nell hired her last March. Besides a decent wage, the company, founded in 2013 by Detroit residents Amy Peterson and Diana Russell, provides housing resources, legal aid and financial literacy workshops.For Azzie Caldwell, who’s paying off debt by working a second job at a truck assembly plant, the jewelry provides an escape.

“I actually put out better pieces when I’m going through stuff because I focus on a piece,” she says, “and it takes me away from what’s bothering me.”

The shape of the graffiti is up to each designer.

“My favorite part is the organic shapes that come out and to see their personalities reflected through each piece — I love that,” says Peterson, wearing graffiti earrings that match her blue-green eyes. “I can tell you who made what piece based on their personalities.”Rebel Nell’s beginnings lie in a rare law school study break Peterson took to see “Hotel Rwanda.” After watching the film, she felt inspired to help survivors and contacted a friend who worked with the International Fund For Rwanda (IFFR). Peterson had a small jewelry company on the side. The next thing she knew, her friend asked her to make 100 awareness pins for celebrities to wear at the Academy Awards.

It’s been a decade since the Jamestown, New York, native became a Detroit Tigers attorney and moved to the Motor City. Back then, she lived next door to COTS and often chatted with the residents while walking her dog. The women shared how they ended up in the shelter.

“There was a lot of abuse — whether physical, emotional or financial — I heard about,” Peterson says. “That was my ah-ha moment: ‘What if I could teach them to be financially stable and prevent them from going back into the shelter? ’ ”She pulled in her friend, Diana Russell, who majored in fashion merchandising at Wayne State University. They decided to create jewelry that women could make and sell. The two explored “all sorts of crazy ideas,” Peterson says. Then one day, she went running on the Dequindre Cut and spotted graffiti that had fallen off a wall.