Leah of reVinyled at a show
Now Playing · The Story of reVinyled

I'm an artist first.

Jewelry was one chapter. Vinyl opened another. Somewhere along the way, all of it started connecting.

Leah digging through records
Before reVinyled

Music came first. Making was always right there with it.

I grew up in Philadelphia drawing, making things and surrounded by music. I didn't know any of it was leading somewhere. I just knew I was happiest when I was making something with my hands or finding the next piece of music I wanted to hear.

Artwork Leah created for her graduating class at St. Hubert's
St. Hubert's
The making part started early too.

This was artwork I made for my graduating class at St. Hubert's. Long before reVinyled, I was already looking for something I could turn into the next thing.

The Track List · Side A

Before the first record was ever cut.

Music, hemp, clay, road trips and a jeweler's bench. None of it felt connected yet.

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Leah as a kid
Track 01 · Side A

The Music Kid

Music was never something I just listened to. I wanted to be in it.

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When breakdancing hit, the neighborhood kids and I put cardboard down out back, turned on the boombox and danced. Run-D.M.C., Beastie Boys, Sugarhill Gang and Grandmaster Flash were part of those early years. Later came Public Enemy and LL Cool J. And yes, I still do a mean robot.
Leah with friends during her early music years
Track 02 · Side A

Finding My Community

I started making friends through music and making jewelry right alongside it.

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As I got older, shows, dancing, friends and the people I met around music became a huge part of my life. I made friends through music and found community there. Around this same time I started making hemp jewelry, teaching myself as I went and carrying making with me into this whole new part of my life.
Concert ticket stubs from Leah's music history
Track 03 · Side A

Following the Music

Then live music opened the door even wider.

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Pink Floyd was my first concert in 1994. H.O.R.D.E. was my first festival in 1995. Then I saw Phish for the first time on December 15, 1995. That's when everything changed. Music became travel, community, discovery and a whole new way of moving through the world.
Pottery Leah made while studying ceramics
Track 04 · Side A

Finding My Craft

Then clay showed me something about the kind of artist I was.

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While I was creating hemp jewelry, making design-heavy Fimo beads, wire wrapping and teaching myself how to make chains, I discovered pottery and fell in love. Clay was different. It was sculptural, and I realized that I was a sculptor more than anything. Years later, carving wax on Jewelers' Row made perfect sense for exactly that reason.
Leah making hemp jewelry while traveling
Track 05 · Side A

Making My Way

Through all those discoveries, hemp was the mainstay.

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I kept pushing it further with Fimo beads, wire-wrapped stones, chains and whatever else I could teach myself. I brought materials on a cross-country road trip, made jewelry along the way and even sold some. Eventually I hit the point where I couldn't teach myself what I wanted to know next.
Historic Jewelers Row in Philadelphia
Track 06 · Side A

Jewelers' Row

Eventually I needed people who could teach me what I couldn't figure out alone.

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Jewelers' Row became my real hands-on education. I learned wax work, metalwork, soldering, repairs, fabrication and finishing beside people who had spent their lives at the bench. Carving wax felt natural after working sculpturally in clay. I built relationships there that lasted, and learned standards that still follow everything I make today.
Flip the Record

Then one broken record changed the track.

I wasn't trying to invent a business. I was trying to make something.

The Track List · Side B

One idea turned into a much bigger story.

The earrings were the beginning. They were never the whole idea.

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Leah experimenting with vinyl at her bench
Track 01 · Side B

One Broken Record

The first material didn't work. Luckily, I had a scratched 45.

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I experimented first with a 78, but the material was quite fragile and seemed toxic. Luckily, I had a scratched 45. I made templates from a clear CD clip case so I could see through them while I composed. When one crossed the label, I saw it differently. The label could become the focal point and carry the record's identity into something new.
Leah vending with Nicole in the early days of reVinyled
Track 02 · Side B

Three Strangers and a Vending Buddy

Three strangers noticed the first pair. Then my friends started asking for their own.

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On the way home I hit Philly AIDS Thrift, found damaged 45s and started making more. Friends requested pairs as gifts until demand got too big and I started selling them. I found Nicole on Craigslist. We pooled our resources and vended together. Today she and her wife own South Street Art Mart, where I still sell reVinyled.
Leah's wax carving and jewelry tools
Track 03 · Side B

Handmade, Always

The material changed. My tools didn't.

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I came to vinyl with the same tools, hands and bench habits I had already built through jewelry. The material asked for a different touch, so I learned what it needed. I still compose, cut, shape, drill, finish and assemble each piece by hand. The material changed. The relationship between my hands and the work did not.
Breakdancer artwork created from rescued vinyl
Track 04 · Side B

A Bigger Canvas

A whole record gave me room to tell bigger stories.

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Eventually I stopped seeing the rest of the record as leftover material. A whole record gave me room to tell much bigger stories using vinyl, album covers, maps, ephemera and original artwork. Even subjects like breakdancing circle back to my own music story. The material stayed the same, but the canvas got much bigger.
Fine jewelry work at Leah's bench
Track 05 · Side B

Back to the Bench

Fine jewelry never really left. It just stopped being the whole story.

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I kept returning to custom work, carving models and solving things at the bench. Eventually vinyl started finding its way into that work too. It made sense. One side of my life came from traditional jewelry training and the other from rescued records. They were always going to meet somewhere.
Fine jewelry incorporating vinyl
Track 06 · Side B

Still Spinning

I have more ideas than time, which is probably exactly how it should be.

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reVinyled keeps expanding because I keep seeing new possibilities in the material. Jewelry led to artwork, paper, custom work and ideas that bring fine jewelry and vinyl together. I don't think of it as a finished product line. It's a body of work that's still growing with me.
The first pair of vinyl earrings Leah made
First earrings I ever made. And this little baby is in college now.
The First Pair

I wasn't trying to start reVinyled.

I was experimenting. Then I put the earrings on and walked out the door. Three strangers stopped me to ask where I got them.

That little moment is still one of my favorite parts of this whole story. The idea worked before I'd even decided what to do with it.

The Work Keeps Moving

One material. A lot of directions.

Earrings opened the door. I kept walking through it.

Finished reVinyled earrings with their source records
Custom goddess-shaped vinyl work
LL Cool J vinyl artwork
Prince vinyl artwork
David Bowie vinyl artwork
Beastie Boys vinyl artwork
The People Wearing It

Some customers became collectors.

They come back looking for certain artists, labels, colors and records. They tell me where they wore them and who stopped them.

Music keeps connecting people long after the record stops playing.
reVinyled collector wearing her earrings
reVinyled collector wearing her earrings
reVinyled collector wearing her earrings
A conversation sparked by reVinyled earrings
Why the Record Still Matters

The record starts the conversation.

The music doesn't disappear when I cut the record. That's actually the part I'm trying to hold onto.

I grew up loving records, but it wasn't only about listening to them. I loved looking at them too. The album covers, the artwork and especially the labels. There are so many great old record labels. The colors, the fonts, the logos, all those little details tell you something about when and where that record came from.

When I make reVinyled, I compose around the label. The vinyl is my material, but the label is the focal point. That's the part that carries the artist, the song, the record company and so much of the history.

I don't want to cut all of that away. I want you to still be able to look at the finished piece and see where it came from.

From a reVinyled Customer
“They're so lightweight, I forget I'm wearing them until someone compliments me.”
A reVinyled customer conversation
The Craft Behind It

An Artist With a Jeweler's Hands.

Vinyl may not be a traditional jewelry material, but the hands working with it were trained at a jeweler's bench.

My years in fine jewelry taught me to look closely, work deliberately and care about the details people may never notice. How something is cut. How an edge feels. How a hole is placed. How a piece hangs, moves, wears and holds up over time.

I don't think I could have figured out reVinyled without learning all of those things first. The material asked me to work differently, but the standards came with me.

Every piece still passes through a jeweler's hands.

See the Process
Leah hand cutting vinyl at her jeweler's bench
Custom wedding bands made by Leah
Full Circle

The bench never really left the story.

I still make custom fine jewelry. Wedding bands, sentimental pieces and one-of-a-kind work let me return to the skills I learned on Jewelers' Row while bringing everything I've learned since then with me.

Sometimes those worlds stay separate. Sometimes vinyl becomes part of the jewelry itself. Either way, it all comes from the same hands.

Still Spinning

The earrings were the beginning.

I have a lot more ideas for where these records can go next.

01 · Artwork

A Bigger Canvas

A whole record gives me room to tell a much bigger story.
12-inch vinyl gives me a much bigger palette to work with. I create original and custom framed pieces using vinyl with album covers, ephemera, maps, original artwork and whatever else the story calls for, from smaller shadow boxes to larger-scale work.
02 · Paper

The Covers Get Another Life Too

Coming Soon
The vinyl was never the only part of the record worth saving.
Album covers have been part of my work for years too. I use the artwork, typography and pieces of the sleeves instead of treating them like packaging to throw away. Greeting cards and postcards are bringing that side of the record back into the collection.
03 · Custom

Your Music. Your Story.

Some ideas need to start with the person instead of the record.
Custom work can start with an artist, a song, a record or a memory. That can become jewelry, matching pieces, wedding or group gifts, artwork or something we haven't made before. Explore Custom Work
04 · Finyl

Fine Jewelry + Vinyl

In Development
Two parts of my creative life are getting closer.
Finyl is where my fine-jewelry background and vinyl work begin to meet on purpose. I'm still developing it, experimenting with precious metals, stones and vinyl inlay while figuring out exactly what this next part of the work wants to become.
Where This Goes Next

I will never put machines over people.

If reVinyled grows, I want it to grow by bringing people into the work. I learned because craftspeople let me stand beside them, ask questions, use the tools and build the skill with my own hands.

There are parts of this process I can teach and skills worth passing on. Growth should create room for more hands, more ideas and more people, not remove them from the process.

Leah
Made in Philadelphia

Music deserves another spin.

They're stories. They're conversations. They're memories. They're connection. And every record still has something left to say.

Dig Through the Crates See the Process