Is this a spoon?

"everything old is new again"

Spoon rings are one of the few things that never seem to go out of style. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve witnessed shoppers get excited when they happen upon Rena’s spoon rings. It’s not just spoon rings that Rena crafts. She collects vintage silverware of all types and artistically bends, reshapes, and repurposes them into whimsical pieces of jewelry, art, bookmarks, keychains, ornaments, and cheese markers. Rena’s vivid imagination captures the heart of so many people, connecting them to a time when our grandmothers used to bring out their heavy chests of silverware so each piece could be polished carefully before dinner. Rena just doesn’t create from the past, she brings things forward into the present so that shoppers of all ages find beauty and value in her art.

I wish that more things in life could be repurposed and reimagined. I wish that more people saw art in old things that were once treasured but now have fallen to the wayside. I wish that more people supported local artists following their hearts and filling in the lines and spaces of their dreams. Yet, we know what they say, “if wishes were horses, than beggars would ride.” So for now, instead of wishing my day away, I’ll settle into helping spread the word about the wonderful talents of Ms. Rena Gillis. She is a jeweler, artist, and story teller in the way she creates creatures from bent forks and spoons. She is a connection to our past and a conduit to our future. Rena Gillis is a local artist at this little shop around the corner who continues to draw customers from near and far and delights in continuously reinventing her pieces.

Rena serves as a reminder that if we’re prudent we strive to never stop growing. It doesn’t mean we discard the past. Maybe we can just take a second look at it and wonder what it can be in the present.