Bread Tab Necklace

2024

Cast sterling silver bread tab

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This piece started, as many of my works do, with a list: Things to make metal at Penland. This list was in preparation for a class I took in the summer of 2024. Jewelry Journey: Lost & Found was a small-scale metal casting class taught by the knowledgeable Mary Hallam Pearse. Along with 19 other objects, including Safety 1st, a cocktail umbrella, a twist tie ring, a lego, a leaf, and a tiny boar I sculpted from wax, this bread tab was deemed worthy of perpetuity.

I’ve collected bread tabs for years without really knowing why. They come in a large variety of shapes, colors, and thicknesses. I appreciate the aesthetic of the bread tab, and the way this necklace causes people to double take.

If you share my appreciation for bread tabs (also sometimes called bread tags, bread clips, or occlupanids), you might enjoy this site, where bread tabs are treated like a species and classified based on their characteristics.