PRETTY THINGS BREWELRY: TAP OF THE LINE FASHION

It’s not everyday you get to wear a keg on your wrist … but it could be.

With the launch of Brewelry, Somerville-based brewery Pretty Things Beer & Ale Project is introducing an alternative to abandoning kegs once they’ve tapped out.

“There’s really nothing you can do with kegs once they’ve broken down, they just sit around rusting and piling up at the brewery,” said Martha Holly-Paquette, co-founder of Pretty Things. “So we decided to cut them up and make jewelry out of them.”

Brewery-Jewelry (hence “Brewelry”) includes pendants, cuffs and bottle openers handmade by Emily Scott, owner of e.scott originals, a jewelry shop specializing in handmade metal jewelry in Somerville. All Brewelry is made from one of Pretty Thing’s very own old and busted kegs. Holly-Paquette was inspired after Scott made her a steel pendant as a gift for a Pretty Things tasting event.

“I got this shield that she made out of kegs,” Holly-Paquette said. “It was just so beautiful I thought it would be really cool to keep making them.”

Scott’s friend Doug Ruuska cut up the kegs into reasonable portions so that the crafting could begin. “Once the kegs were chopped into workable pieces, I started figuring out how to get the Pretty Things logo on cuffs and pendants and things like that,” Scott says.

A tedious task that takes about an hour per piece (as steel is tremendously difficult to bend)—Scott spends many hours molding kegs in her workshop. The emblems and pendants she crafts eventually get paired with leather necklaces or printed onto leather cuffs. Bottle openers are the most time-consuming piece, taking up to two hours each.

Although Pretty Things supplies the kegs and is launching the line, Holly-Paquette insists that Scott spearheads the project.

Holly-Paquette calls the finish products “amazing,” and due to time and materials, limited in quantity. She believes the line will appeal to those already drinking Pretty Things beer: cooler, younger people who love supporting local businesses and appreciate handmade oddities from hard-working kooky folks (such as, say, the Pretty Things staff).

“I love that the pieces are connected to our beers quite intimately, and that they are made in Somerville, which is where our business’s heart is,” Holly-Paquette said.

“One side of each piece was once touching our beers and being lugged around a bar somewhere in Boston!”

While some may fashion the idea of wearing bits of keg a little bit strange, Holly-Paquette doesn’t see it that way: “It’s cooler than sitting on our broken kegs, which is the only other thing I ever do with them.”

Brewelry pieces start at $25, and can be found exclusively online at Pretty Thing’s website starting September 12th.

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