KRISTINA MARKEY
Kristina Markey, creator behind the jewelry line Meddlewares, works her punk ethos into everything she creates.
“Being part of the DIY punk community really helped shape my creativity – music has always been my choice of outlet and still is, yet now I have jewelry, too,” she said. “It helped me even more to have the ‘think outside the box’ mindset.”
Being part of the DIY punk community really helped shape my creativity.
Stina, as she’s known to friends and family, grew up in Eastern Pennsylvania, as part of the family who produces the Bowers Chile Pepper Festival, the largest festival of its kind in the country. Event organizing and community connection came early on for Stina, who did her share of the work getting the festival set up every year.
While in high school Stina found the DIY punk community in her area, who she remained close with for a couple of years after school, living in a punk warehouse space and punk house in Allentown, PA after a year out in Arizona. Then it was off to Columbus and Athens, OH for the next decade.
She connected with the punk community there too, living in punk houses for the majority of her 20s and cultivating a rich DIY ethos.
In 2012 Stina embraced her drive to discover the unknown, and bought a one-way ticket to Europe. She was offered an opportunity to do a live-work stay at a goat farm in Cape Clear, an island off the main coast of Ireland, then went to Switzerland and did a work trade at a hotel for dogs for a month in the foothills of the Alps, she said. “After that I hopped around Europe for a minute and then spent the last couple of months in Portugal doing a work trade at a surf camp, getting it ready for the upcoming season.”
She came back to the States in the spring of 2013 to start work at a farm on the Rodale Institute back in Kutztown, PA. “For a lot of my 20s and early 30s I was a bit of a nomad between music and farming,” she said.
For a lot of my 20s and early 30s I was a bit of a nomad between music and farming.
The next season found Stina working back in Ohio, farming and baking. In 2016, she landed at a farm in Western Massachusetts and after a season there made the move to WNY to farm in Clarence Center. “I knew a bunch of people in the punk community here which made it a top candidate to move to,” she said.
WNY welcomed her with open arms, and even introduced her to her significant other. “A fellow farm crew, who happened to be part of the DIY punk community in Buffalo, introduced me to my significant other in 2017,” she said. “He and I had similar conversations with her within 24 hours of each other and she said we had to meet. We did and the rest is history! I fell in love with Travis and the kids and our little family was complete.”
I knew a bunch of people in the punk community here which made it a top candidate to move to.
After nearly six years of her new life in Lockport with her love and his two children, Stina found herself facing a new challenge: a total hysterectomy that had a recovery period of three months, forcing her to slow down and recuperate from the unexpected surgery. Travis, knowing her interest in jewelry-making and wanting to give her something to focus on during recovery, built her a little workbench in their garage, outfitting it with a rechargeable rotary tool. “Once I was able to hobble out to the garage I first worked with silicone and dried flowers,” she said.
She enjoyed stretching her creative muscles in this way, but the work didn’t fully capture her passions. It did, however, propel her to start studying jewelry-making, the thing that had been in the back of her mind for a long time.
“I fell into a rabbit hole of different jewelry and searching for different ideas and remembered I had a piece of brass in my shoebox of penpal letters and treasures of yesterdays that I found while living in Columbus,” she said. “Once retrieved I cut it in half, rounded it out, drilled some holes in it for ear wires and polished it up and voila! Earrings!”
The passion took hold immediately. “That was my calling and I dove into upcycling earrings first and within the last couple of years have branched out into rings, bracelets and necklaces. Anything metal-y I will try and turn into jewelry.”
And with that, Meddlewares was born. She quickly outgrew the little workbench in the garage, and moved the operation to the basement in the family home, where she was able to add to her repertoire – new equipment, new materials, new designs, new techniques. “I have invested in new tools, like a bench sheer, a variety of hammers, ring bender and an arbor press,” she said. “My newest piece of equipment is a rolling mill and it’s amazing – it helps me elongate fork tines and spoons for more of a unique look.”
Stina is still learning her craft, adding skillsets like soldering, and even wants to start utilizing the art of welding into her work.
Meddlewares incorporates Stina’s natural DIY attitude and love of upcycling materials to find them new use and purpose, vs. sending them to the landfill. It’s also about making art and having fun, she said.
“I get more of a kick seeing returning customers and friends wearing my art than making a buck. It means more to me to make my art affordable so everyone may treat themselves or loved ones.”
Follow Meddlewares on FB & IG, get a treasure from her booth at Black Sheep Market in Tonawanda, and catch her IRL at the following markets this summer:
June 21: Hometown Market East Aurora, 54 Elm St., 10am – 2pm
June 27: Lewiston Summer Festival, 170 9th St., 9am – 3pm
Aug 1: Lockport Community Market, 69 Canal St., 9am – 2pm
Aug 16: Wandering Gypsy Market, 3301 Braley Rd., Ransomville, 10am – 2pm
Sept 20: Hometown Market East Aurora, 54 Elm St., 10am – 2pm
Oct 3: Locktober Fest, 69 Canal St., Lockport, 10am – 5pm
Written by Kristy Lock
My name is Kristy and I’m an American journalist, specializing in profile writing. I’ve told the stories of frenetic & fascinating people in Chicago, Illinois, Los Angeles, California, and my hometown of Western New York for nearly two decades. Feel free to drop me a line! I would love to hear your story sometime.
Photos by Kristy Lock.