Meet Helen Cutshaw

Helen Cutshaw
Email:  ​​[email protected]

BIOGRAPHY
During and after a career in newspaper advertising, I collected railroad china used on the dining cars and this led to collecting pieces from restaurants and hotels. I was always drawn to broken china jewelry and admired both the beauty and history of each piece.

A few years ago, I heard about a deserted factory in West Virginia where shards were still strewn onto the ground and into the river. Factory workers tossed imperfect pieces out the back door and down the riverbank.  Carr China closed in 1952 after a labor dispute and the factory was abandoned and later destroyed but the footprint was left as were the shards. My husband and I went on a road trip, dug what we could for the day and came home with our treasures.
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I started taking silversmith classes with broken china as my focus. Most jewelry is made from fine china but mine, for the most part, is strictly commercial grade so it’s thicker and more of a challenge to create pieces.  If, however, I see an interesting pattern on an type of china, I’ll create something from it.
When you buy one of my jewelry pieces, you’re buying a true piece of history.