Ferrari supercars have long offered the best shades of blue, in my opinion. Mazda has the sparkling Soul Red Crystal and Nissan’s Monarch Orange is impressive. Simply put, we need more color in this world. In any case, a Ferrari in any shade of blue isn’t going to grace my personal collection anytime soon – I’m a journalist on a journalist’s budget, after all – but it’s not too bad when you can wear accessories made from Ferraris and more by CRASH Jewelry.
I must have done very well this year because Santa Claus brought me not one, but two handcuffs, one made of a Ferrari 360 Challenge Stradale in Rossa Corsa and the other made of a Ferrari 360 Modena painted in highly metallic Azzuro California. Both were manufactured, as you might have guessed, crashed vehicle parts.
Four miles south of UCLA, Beverly Coachcraft specializes in collision repairs for Mercedes-Benz vehicles. Like when driving an expensive car, owners often want a part to be replaced rather than repaired. This means that doors, hoods, fenders and side panels with small and large dents, scratches or dents have been replaced. The by-product of this process is a large amount of aluminum, and Christi Schimpke had a motive, access and a plan to transform these raw materials into pieces of jewelry tailored for those obsessed with cars.
Schimpke started CRASH Jewelry after she moved her creative studio to Beverly CoachCraft, where her husband is one of the owners. She noticed a parade of luxury cars from Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, Bentley, Aston Martin, Porsche, Rolls-Royce, Maserati and more passing by and started thinking about the discarded parts and how she could recycle them. Nobody was injured in any of these fender-benders, by the way; that would be macabre. CoachCraft works with the latest European cars which, for the most part, suffer lot damage at the dealership or from a valet. If a car is seriously damaged, it is usually a total loss, which means that the insurer owns it and CRASH does not touch it.
Schimpke was already making more traditional jewelry as a trained artist, but the price of the metal skyrocketed in 2013, when she opened the company. When she came up with the idea of recycling CoachCraft pieces, she had an almost infinite supply of materials. However, she had to create her own production techniques, especially since the original factory paint on sheet metal did not like to stand still when she bent the metal into a fist.
It took about three years to really reduce machining processes, she says, but now she has systems in place and is constantly improving them. CRASH Jewelry’s sales increased 400 percent and Schimpke’s work is also finding its way to fame: a guest in the fifth season of Jay Lenogarage of he was wearing one of his handcuffs, and models on the catwalk during Los Angeles Fashion Week wore CRASH jewelry.
This is not just for women: if I used French cuffs, I would like those Lamborghini Gallardo flaps in Monterey Blue. Schimpke etched into the metal to expose the silver underneath and they are very hot.
Hey, if you were good this year too, you can buy them for yourself.
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