Meet Christi Schimpke | Jewelry Designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Christi Schimpke and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Christi, is there something that you feel is most responsible for your success?
There are actually a few factors — sustainability, uniqueness, innovation, and collaboration.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I make sustainable, uni-sex jewelry from discarded sheet metal sourced from luxury cars, e.g., Ferrari, Maserati, Mercedes-Benz, Bentley, Porsche, Lamborghini just to name a few. What sets me apart is the product itself — whereas most jewelry is made from precious metals, my pieces are created from actual car metal that retains its original factory paint. I engrave the name of the car on each cuff, earring, and necklace and every item comes with a registration card stating the car make, model, date it was made, car paint color, and any other relevant information.

I have a Master’s in Art History, so my former career was at a major museum where I was an editor, writer, and researcher. Midlife I discovered metalsmithing and I fell in love with creating jewelry out of nothing but metal (s) and gemstones. After moving my studio into my husband’s body shop garage I came up with the idea to make jewelry from discarded automotive metal. It was very difficult in the beginning since there were no instructions or rules. This was new territory since no one is really doing anything like this. I had to develop my own manufacturing processes that allowed the car’s factory paint to remain intact, particularly on cuffs.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Getty Museum, LAMA, Norton Simon Museum, the Huntington Gardens, the beaches, Santa Monica, Malibu, Melrose, downtown LA for food, shopping, and gallery hopping. For meals I would go to the Farmer’s Market, Citizen, Mozza, and Dear John’s. For music I would go to the Cinema Bar.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My husband deserves a lot of credit for supplying me with luxury car metal (he has a body shop) so that I can make my designs, and his continued support. Bryan Bischoff deserves credit for his design collaborations and creative genius.

Website: https://www.crashjewelry.com/

Instagram: @crashjewelry

Linkedin: Christi Schimpke

Twitter: crashjewelry

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CRASHJewelry

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEohko4tDMNRR4SRZ8X71FA