Guns get 2nd life as jewelry
PHILADELPHIA — There have been many proposals for keeping guns off the streets of this violence-plagued city, but maybe none as unique as Melanie Brandon's: Melt them down into jewelry.
It sounds pie-in-the-sky yet Brandon, a Philadelphia fashion designer, managed to get it done. Runway models wore the gunmetal pieces at Brandon's two shows during Fashion Week in New York, and they did it again here on Friday.
The jewelry, part of her Melani Von Alexandria collection, was Brandon's creative attempt to address a harsh reality: Philadelphia is on pace for its highest murder rate in a decade. Three hundred people have been slain so far this year.
"Just like a lot of Philadelphians, (I was) frustrated with people getting killed left and right," Brandon said. "Why sit by and complain about what's going on? ... You have to be part of the solution."
Brandon, who has been designing for eight years, was thinking about rhinestone accents for her latest collection but said it didn't feel right.
"That just seemed so plastic to me," she said. "Everybody's done that. It really means nothing."
That's when the idea of turning guns into jewelry hit her. She wrote a proposal in July and sent it to the mayor, top police brass and the sheriff.
It ended up on the desk of Paris Washington, chief weapons officer for the Sheriff's Department. Last month, he escorted Brandon and five confiscated firearms to a local welder's studio. The guns had been ordered destroyed by a court.
Washington, paraphrasing a Bible verse, said Brandon's idea reminded him of man laying down his swords and turning them into plowshares.
"I thought this might be a way of taking an object that, in our case, was used in violent confrontation and allow it to be turned into something beautiful," said Washington.
The welder, working from Brandon's designs, made the guns into a ring, broaches and several pendants.
Jonathan Shorr, owner of the Jonathan Shorr Gallery in New York, hosted a show for Brandon during Fashion Week earlier this month because he was so taken with the concept.
"It's not only taking the guns off the street and destroying them ... something positive is coming out of them," Shorr said.
