How to choose found items for jewellery-making

It isn't just ivory and blood diamonds that give the responsible jeweller an ethical headache. With the high price of precious metals and the current trend for "austerity chic", the aesthetics of found-item jewellery are appealing.

Many contemporary jewellery artists use found items in conjunction with precious stones and gold or silver to great effect. However, just because a component is free, or has sentimental value, or is rare, doesn't mean it's suitable for the Found Item treatment.

When considering a found item in a piece of jewellery, I ask myself the 3P questions: Is it Polluted? Is it Poisonous? And is it Protected?

POLLUTED? - Sea-glass collected from a beach near a sewage treatment plant should be scrubbed with soap and water with a little disinfectant. Wool, untreated, gathered from barbed wire fencing, can contain traces of sheep-dip chemicals. Bolts and mechanical parts covered in grease or WD-40 not only stain clothing, it can leach the colour from fabric, damage plastics and cause skin irritations. Items from factory sites and mine workings can be covered in chemical nasties invisible to the naked eye, such as asbestos dust or fibres. In these cases, rust is the least of your problems.

POISONOUS? - Natural components, such as seeds and bones, are not always as safe as they look. For example, the red-and-black seeds commonly used and sold as beads in Africa are poisonous when eaten. Animal parts start to decompose and attract a range of bugs and bacteria, so require careful handling and hand-washing before they are clean. Printed circuit boards, so attractive to some makers, often contain traces of heavy metals such as mercury, cadmium and bismuth in the solder. These metals should not be in contact with the skin. Inhaling dust particles produced when sawing silicon boards isn't a smart idea either.

PROTECTED? - many plants, trees and animals are protected by law and their use or sale is illegal. You may be lucky enough to find a cast-off bird claw while out on a country walk, but someone else may decide to go after a protected species with an air rifle. Some areas of the countryside are protected, such as sites of special and scientific interest or world heritage sites. Chesil Beach, for example is a protected site, and removing the pebbles is prohibited. Don't even ask archaeologists what they think of metal-detector users on ancient sites!

In the first instance, asking the 3-P questions with a healthy dose of common sense usually answers any issues with a found item. The DEFRA website is a good place to find advice for natural items, and the Health & Safety Executive for manufactured scraps. If in doubt, give them a call. And happy hunting!