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Indianapolis, IN—Three things that resonate with today’s consumers—especially Millennials—are authenticity, a good story, and the ability to repurpose something instead of damaging the environment with it.

Indianapolis jeweler Dana Friedman, a partner in Petite G, is three for three on that score. She recently began collecting old bar pins, scatter pins, and hat pins. But instead of just removing the gems and melting down the findings, Friedman turns them into bracelets, offering her customers unique, distinctive, fashion-forward, collectible, and—best of all—affordable fine jewelry.

“I’ve been wearing old bar pins on slide bracelets, or taken old hatpins and put chains on them and made them into bracelets. It’s a great way to repurpose these beautiful pieces because nobody is wearing hatpins anymore,” she told The Centurion. (For the record, she snips the pin part off and just uses the design element, so nobody gets stuck.) Retail prices for the finished pieces range from $300 to $1,000, squarely in the female self-purchase sweet spot.

In the photo at left, the hatpin with the opal top is Friedman’s most recent acquisition. Petite G is a corporate sponsor of the Butler Bulldogs—her husband’s alma mater, where he was an athlete. The couple traveled to Detroit last weekend for the opening round of NCAA March Madness games.

“There were games on Friday and Sunday, but I had a free day Saturday so of course I went jewelry shopping!” she said. She found the opal pin in a Birmingham, MI antique store. 

Unfortunately, Butler fell to Perdue, 76-73, in the NCAA Round of 32. Friedman’s bracket may have been busted but her remade pins are sure to be winners!