Industrial Strength: The Jewelry World Is Nailing The Hardware Aesthetic

2025-07-25 Featured

A trip to the local hardware store might stir inspiration in myriad ways—paints, plants, tiles, and all manner of other materials can transform a space into something unrecognizable. For jewelers, it seems, the hardware store has the potential to transform more than just a home.

It’s no surprise, really, how well hardware store materials might transform into jewelry. Industrial chains make for the perfect bodily adornment, and brands are picking up on those cues.

It was Mary Ann Scherr who first began utilizing such materials in jewelry design. Commissioned by U.S. Steel to create wearable items using the metal in the ’60s, she turned industrial metals into beautiful, wearable sets. Other pioneering designers have followed—notably Andrea Lieberman’s bolts and screws, Cartier’s nut and bolt motifs, Tiffany’s ball-bearer styles (I still have my engraved key chain from high school, a treasure), and Marla Aaron’s carabiners, which we touched on in last week’s article about signature clasps. The difference with the latter brands, though, is that they didn’t transform the hardware into something almost recognizable: They embraced it and celebrated functional hardware as fine jewelry.

So it’s been around, to say the least. But hardware-inspired jewels seem to be coming at us in a wave lately, as more brands find inspiration in the ordinary, and consumers look to embrace a bit of everyday luxurious minimalism (or, when all grouped together, perhaps maximalism).

Most recently we shared the details on Juliana Krys’ Baller collection, a line inspired by the hardware store staple the ball chain, and many other pieces have followed (or preceded). Here are some of the latest hardware-inspired pieces for celebrating the ordinary-turned-extraordinary.

Rainbow K necklace Versus cord