About Amy Butts

Rather than building simple necklaces, rings and bracelets, Amy's work is wearable, whimsical nostalgia. She creates new life out of old items including chandelier crystals; several decades' worth of autograph books, diaries and recipe books; vintage rosaries and other yard sale and flea market finds. In addition to her own scavenging, she works with clients to refashion everything from inherited jewelry, photographs, handwritten notes and obsolete wedding rings into contemporary pieces that have meaning for today.

Working in her Chicago studio overflowing with found objects, crystals and jewelry vending machines, Amy finds inspiration in the ways that jewelry can spark memory and play the role of souvenir. She hand crafts each piece in her collection and can spend hours just arranging various items until they feel irreplaceably right. Amy says it's a good day in her studio when she is able to look at beautiful little objects that have lost their present usefulness and bring out their beauty again.

Amy’s jewelry can be worn multiple ways, like doubling necklaces around the neck or by stacking bracelets. Amy encourages layering pieces from her collections together and loves the idea of her clients becoming collectors of her jewelry

The daughter of a tool and die worker and a veteran crafter, she is not at all surprised that she makes her living designing and creating. She even grew up on street named Jewel Avenue!

Amy has a BFA in metalsmithing from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and an MFA in sculpture from the School of the Art Institute in Chicago.

Amy is passionate about teaching. She is head of the Metalsmithing and Jewelry Department at The Art Center of Highland Park. Amy also offers private individual and group lessons.