Photography by Santiago Vanegas

I’ve been busy working on my skirt project and about a million other holiday and school related things, so Santiago took the lead this week to bring you this post.  This photo shoot is 100 percent his brain-child.

The bracelet and cuff he photographed this week are made by a company called the Caliber Collection.  (The steel one belongs to me, the brass one belongs to Santiago.) The jewelry is made from the metal from illegal guns and bullet casings taken off America’s streets.  Twenty percent of the net proceeds from the sale of their jewelry are used to fund public safety initiatives designed to reduce illegal gun violence.

Well, with a background like that, Santiago’s ideas started flowing.  This is a wonderful thing, but understand this, some of his plans can be pretty ambitious and most of the time I just stare at him and say, “How the heck are we going to do THAT?!”  So when he made his pitch that he wanted to create a room and use string to mark bullet trajectories like in our favorite crime show Dexter, I gave him the look I sometimes do that says “Don’t you put one more thing on my plate!”  The idea was good, so I told him to run with it.  But he was on his own.

I love how the images turned out!  To see him in action, we have a time lapse video up on our Instagram.  And just to explain a little further, the number on the bracelets are serial numbers from weapons reclaimed by law enforcement as part of buy back programs in cities across the US.  Our bracelets come from the San Francisco program.  To read more about the Caliber Collection, click here.

We will be back again when I have something to show you on my skirt.  Not exactly sure when that will be, but hopefully soon!!

Happy Holidays Everyone!