Every piece of our jewellery has a past — and that’s what makes it beautiful. Every Trash Panda piece begins with something unexpected — rescued, reimagined, and reborn. Here’s a look at some of the surprising places your jewellery might have started life.

At Trash Panda we make jewellery from so many materials. Sometimes even from things that were never meant to sparkle. And that makes us sad.  Each component is rescued, re-imagined and re-crafted by hand in small batches.

Industrial Components & Factory Rejects

  • Bonded-seal washers & O-rings: factory rejects once used to keep engines or pipes watertight, now stylish circles of industrial chic.
  • Rubber: We work with a local rubber company to scoop up some of their factory rejects.

Sample Book Fabrics

  • Textured samples: buttery suede-style offcuts from roller-blind sample books, transformed into lightweight geometric designs.
  • Wallpaper Samples: want a piece of William Morris without the price tag? Thanks to a book of wallpaper samples, some of our designs contain art replicated from the original 19th-century designs.

Broken and Pre-Loved Jewellery

  • Charms, chains & beads: fragments of once-loved pieces, meticulously cleaned and re-worked into bold new designs with plenty of personality. Ear wires, chains and connectors are always new, high-quality metal jewellery findings – usually Stainless Steel or Silver.

Reclaimed Leather

  • Sofa-industry offcuts: real, often Scotch-guarded leather saved from upholstery waste. Hand-cut (no electricity) into rich, tactile shapes. Distinctive patterns that make each pair unique.

Vegan Leather Alternatives

  • Faux-leather offcuts: reclaimed synthetic materials for cruelty-free designs that are light, strong and stylish.

Waste Plastics

  • Milk bottles and lids: hand-sculpted into crisp white drops and sculptural forms.
  • Sparkling-water and soda bottles: reshaped into vibrant, light-catching statement pieces.
  • Signage & shop displays: Boards and signs hand cut with a saw to make unique shapes.

Bouncy Castles and Lilos

  • Inflatables: We work with the wonderful Inflatable Amnesty to repurpose their tiny offcuts of bouncy castles, armbands, rubber rings and lilos into vibrant, durable jewellery.

Textiles

  • Maker Offcuts: we rescue tiny textile scraps from other independent makers, making these materials double rejected and therefore doubly pre-loved. Hannah Southsea saves her beautiful fabric leftovers from her upcycled clothing collections, giving even the smallest pieces a new life.

Paper

  • Old sheet music: snapped up from scrap stores and charity shops, these pages are re-imagined into delicate, nostalgic designs with rhythm in their grain.
  • Wallpaper samples: rescued from sample books and given a fresh life far from the wall; printed patterns turned into wearable art.
  • Old nautical charts: used by mariners to plan their voyage and navigate safely and efficiently, these fascinating maps make great patterns for brooches and pendants.

Metal

  • Recycled Fine Silver Clay: the silver used for our pendants and charms is 99% pure fine silver once fired. It begins life as silver clay; an organic binder mixed with micron-sized particles of recycled silver. The clay is produced by recycling companies in Japan, typically salvaged from the electronics industry, giving this precious metal a brand-new purpose.
  • Stainless Steel: new, durable hardware that adds strength and shine to every piece.
  • Bottle Tops & Caps; collected from a mate who works in a bar (cheers! hic!) and reborn as textured, colourful metal accents with a playful story to tell.

Other Cool Finds

  • Beach Plastic: ocean-tumbled fragments rescued from the shoreline, cleaned, and transformed into bright reminders of what we throw away
  • Sea Glass: naturally frosted shards shaped by the tides, given a second life as smooth, glimmering accents in our jewellery.
  • Old advertising banners: pieces of vinyl banners reborn as bold, story-filled designs that carry traces of their past life in every scratch and shine.
Please note: each item may vary slightly in colour, texture or finish due to the reclaimed materials used — that’s part of what makes every Trash Panda piece one-of-a-kind.