“I got the idea after a friend and I went shooting. I kept the casings and eventually created a pair of earrings,” she notes, gesturing toward an ample jewelry case at Kobo’s Gallery where she displays her bullet-laced, metal-fabricated designs. “Another customer came in and told me I should try making a pair of cufflinks out of shotgun shells, and then offered to take me shooting. So I went,” she says while grinning.

Sutton, a demure brunette who is casually garbed in a heather grey, off-shoulder top and faded blue jeans, has an understated, elegant air about her and, at first blush, doesn’t strike me as someone that would necessarily be wielding a torch, let alone at home on the shooting range. Sutton says, “I do like shooting now, but I didn’t grow up in a house that hunted or even had guns. You could say I lived in a bubble.” But where the provocative marriage of bullets and jewelry might not seem like the most likely of pairings either, Sutton deftly merges the two together creating a distinctive look that is both contemporary and eclectic.
“I get a lot of inspiration from discarded objects,” she mentions as we approach a display showcasing an ornate pendant that began its life as a Victorian drawer pull. “I like finding ways to make things new again.” She turns the pendant in her hand, an elaborate art nouveau fixture with a bullet casing that has been artfully welded to the top of it. The piece serves as a frame for a transparent window, revealing an illustration of several eyes, salvaged from the pages of a 1950s magazine. Peering through its casing, I wonder audibly at how she’s managed to rivet it together without cracking the glass.
“It’s actually museum-quality, non-reflective acrylic. I had a friend who just happened to get a carpentry gig working for the North Carolina Art Museum. They donated all of their scraps from the project—I’m set for years,” she says.
It’s a common theme, those incidents of serendipity and contradiction, which has led to the discovery of largely abandoned elements that she regularly incorporates into her work. Things most would consider junk—distressed keys, dresser handles, clock parts and the relics of buildings—have found a home in her creations. She’s an admirer of discarded objects and their subsequent reclamation. “Anything that you might find in the bottom bins of an antique shop has probably found its way into my jewelry,” she notes. “I’m big on repurposing.”
Originally hailing from Raleigh, North Carolina, Sutton initially came to Savannah to pursue an education in graphic design at Savannah College of Art and Design. As with much of her life, a spontaneous decision to take a jewelry class as an obligatory elective quickly changed things.
“I was pretty set on graphic design in the beginning, and trying to think of school in terms of having a job after graduation,” Sutton explains. “At the time, I felt like it was a good major to pursue. I do love great design, though,” she continues. “I just didn’t have much of a knack for sitting at the computer all day.” Sutton uses collage a lot in her work, so the graphic design background really helps with that. Even this discarded pursuit still bears an influence. She says, “It’s changed a lot of aspects of my life other than jewelry—the way I see things—even decorating my home.”

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Written by: Elizabeth Cheever-Gessaman
Photography by: Jabberpics