Behind the Scenes : Lizzy Borden Pieces Together Hardware to Wear

Lizzy Borden took an ax . . . and windshield glass and electrical wiring and metal pipes . . . and she made jewelry out of it.

Lizzy Borden is the name Joan Jurado of Belmont Shore in Long Beach uses for her jewelry and functional art, on display along with other artists’ work at Streetside Place, a collection of galleries and shops in Costa Mesa, through Sept. 14.

“Most of my stuff is durable,” Jurado says. “You can throw it around and not hurt it.”

That’s because she uses materials found mainly at home improvement stores.

To keep the jewelry lightweight, she paints plastic bolts and washers to look like metal. “Automobile glass is heavy, but people really liked that. I used to look for broken glass on the street, but now I go to a windshield place for my pieces.”

She began three years ago making bracelets, earrings and pins to wear herself, but when enough people seemed interested, she and her manager/husband, Carlos, began selling it through the L.A. Jewelry Mart.

Demanding orders, however, made Jurado lose something essential to her art: her sense of humor. She’s since gone back to making things one at a time. Now, she says, she has time to reflect and her good humor.