Leah of reVinyled standing on a Philadelphia street with her arms outstretched
Now Playing · The Story of reVinyled

I'm an artist first.

Music, fine jewelry and rescued records. I've been making things with my hands for as long as I can remember.

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.

Swipe through the tracks →
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.
6 tracks · Side A
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.

Swipe through the tracks →
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

Alongside the Vinyl

Custom fine jewelry and reVinyled have always been part of the same working life.

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I never stopped making custom fine jewelry while I was building reVinyled. Commissions, model making and work at the bench continued alongside the records. Within two years of making vinyl earrings, I was already imagining designs that brought vinyl inlay into my fine jewelry.
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.
6 tracks · Side B
The first pair of vinyl earrings Leah made
Me not even knowing what I was building.
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.

Roulette 45 rpm record Columbia maroon 45 rpm record MGM rainbow 45 rpm record
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 Craft Behind It

Made at My Jeweler’s Bench.

The jeweler’s bench has always been at the center of my work. It’s where I make custom fine jewelry and where I cut, shape and finish the records that become reVinyled.

My training on Jewelers’ Row shaped how I work with every material: looking closely, working deliberately and caring about the details. How an edge feels. Where a hole is placed. How a piece hangs, moves and holds up when someone wears it.

Fine jewelry and vinyl have always happened alongside each other. The material changes, but that attention to how something is made runs through all of it.

Every piece is cut, shaped and finished by hand.

See the Process
Leah hand cutting vinyl at her jeweler's bench
Leah standing on Philadelphia’s Jewelers’ Row
Jewelers’ Row · Philadelphia
Custom wedding bands made by Leah
Matching 14-karat white gold wedding bands with diamond and The Clash vinyl record inlay
Fine Jewelry + Vinyl

Fine jewelry has always been part of the story.

Custom fine jewelry has been part of my working life all along. I make wedding bands, sentimental pieces and one-of-a-kind commissions. That work has continued alongside reVinyled. It all starts at the same bench.

From Jewelers’ Row to vinyl inlay

See my jewelry journey
A few pieces from my bench

Custom fine jewelry, alongside reVinyled.

Custom wedding set with a diamond engagement ring, curved diamond band and engraved wide band
A custom engagement ring and wedding bands
Sculptural yellow gold snake engagement ring with a diamond
A custom yellow gold snake engagement ring
Front view of a contoured diamond band beside its matching sculpted wide wedding band
A diamond contour band and its matching wedding band
01 · The foundation

Learning the trade on Jewelers’ Row

It takes a village to make one beautiful piece of jewelry.

I started working and learning on Philadelphia’s Jewelers’ Row in 2000.

Working with master jewelers, I learned wax model making, fabrication, soldering and repairs. I’m a sculptor by nature, and making a model by hand gave me a way to work an idea into a form I could hold.

I work closely with a diamond setter on Jewelers’ Row who I’ve worked with for decades, as well as my longtime caster and many others. Those relationships are part of every piece that comes off my bench.

02 · Alongside reVinyled

Custom work, all along

Fine jewelry was never a chapter I closed.

My own custom commissions grew out of that foundation: silver, gold and platinum, diamonds and gemstones. Engagement rings, wedding bands, pendants and meaningful pieces for individual people have continued alongside the record jewelry and artwork.

Some pieces begin with a stone. Others begin with a record or someone saying, “I have this idea…” The bench is where I work out what comes next.

03 · An idea that kept growing

Bringing the record into fine jewelry

Within two years of starting the vinyl earrings, I was already designing vinyl inlay jewelry in my head.

I could see possibilities for bringing rescued records into the fine jewelry I was making, but it took until now to finally bring those ideas to life.

It wasn’t a fixed plan for where reVinyled had to go. The idea just kept growing, and there’s still so much I want to make.

You haven’t seen anything yet.

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. Explore the Artwork →
02 · Paper

The Covers Get Another Life Too

Coming to the Shop
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. I’ve made greeting cards and postcards from original album covers, and I’m getting them ready to share in the online shop.
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 grows from an idea I’ve carried since the early years of reVinyled: bringing vinyl inlay into my fine jewelry. I’m developing that work with precious metals, stones and rescued records. It comes from two parts of my working life that have always existed alongside each other.
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