The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

Treasure hunting doesn't have to involve sunken Spanish galleons and buried chests of gold doubloons. Today, we encounter treasures in vintage stores, second-hand shops, yard sales – and people with an eye out for repurposing the past into art for the present get really excited about their finds.

"I collect all sorts of objects," says Jennifer Schock, a Dayton artist who creates both jewelry and hand-crafted cards using unique vintage elements.

"These collected things wait in the closet until I look at them and decide that today is the day that they begin morphing into something else – something useful, or maybe just for fun."

The magic happens at her work table – a scratched and nicked dining room table purchased by her parents at their marriage in 1945.

"Shelves surround me, holding jewelry tools, semi-precious stones, beads, sterling and other stuff I may decide to pick up and create with," Schock says. In a nearby closet are more tools, paper, copper, scraps, "junk" collected, all awaiting the day that they are chosen to become something.

What she makes, in addition to one of a kind jewelry and hand doodled cards of intricate design and colorful array, is a statement counteracting the impersonality of the modern world: its fascination with technology that threatens to eclipse its appreciation of humanity.

Courtesy photo

Schock enjoys making hand-doodled, intricate cards with intricate designs and plenty of color.

"We live in a text, email and social media world," Schock says. "Maybe my cards will bring a moment of laughter, joy, gratitude, healing tears, reflection to the recipient.

"It's cool to think that the person purchasing a card will write a note thus making a statement, with my card only the vehicle . . . love, sympathy, birthday, missing you, just a plain old fashioned thought to another human being."

If we're on the hunt for treasure, maybe that positive interaction with other human beings is the thing to be looking for . . .

Through September 7, Wenaha Gallery (219 E. Main, Dayton) is showcasing the nostalgic collage and doodled cards of Jennifer Schock, as well as her treasure-inspired jewelry. The gallery is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday.