Upcycled Designs
Adornment as Power
Vincent Dion Stringer
Mixed Media on Upcycled Glass Bottle
Featuring Vintage Liz Claiborne Brooch
Baltimore, Maryland | 2025
Description:
In Adornment as Power, Vincent Dion Stringer transforms a reclaimed glass bottle into a shrine of elegance, identity, and resistance. Clad in copper leaf, rhinestones, and bold leopard print, the vessel channels Afrocentric strength and fashion-forward storytelling. A central collage of a regal, crowned figure radiates with ceremonial intensity, framed by vibrant bursts of color and texture.
At its neck, the bottle wears a vintage Liz Claiborne brooch—a gold and crystal flower once emblematic of 1980s power dressing. Reimagined here as sacred ornament, it speaks to the legacy of self-expression as both shield and celebration. The piece blurs the line between fashion accessory and spiritual relic, offering viewers a meditation on how we wear our histories, claim our beauty, and assert our presence in the world.
A couture relic. A cultural altar. Adornment as Power is a tribute to the sacred act of getting dressed.
Mixed Media on Upcycled Glass Bottle
An elegant transformation of an empty spirits bottle into a luminous art object, Head in the Clouds combines fine detail, cultural symbolism, and environmental consciousness. The hand-painted portrait—its features framed by flowing waves of cloud-like hair—evokes a state of serene vision and boundless imagination. Layers of turquoise blue and gold leaf shimmer across the bottle’s shoulders, culminating in a Navajo turquoise pendant set in 925 sterling silver, a gemstone revered for its protective and healing properties.
Every surface is considered: patterned borders and intricate bands wrap the form, while multiple coats of varnish seal and enrich the textures over a careful, fifteen-day finishing process. This work unites the grounded beauty of heritage adornment with the expansiveness of dream and possibility, making it both a striking display piece and a lasting conversation starter for the discerning collector.
Head in the clouds II
Vincent Dion Stringer
Mixed Media on Upcycled Glass Bottle | Baltimore, Maryland | 2025
Description:
“Signs and Symbols” is a richly layered, hand-embellished vessel that serves as both artifact and oracle. At its center, a stylized face gazes outward with a globe in its eye, embodying global consciousness and spiritual awakening. Interwoven serpentine lines, geometric motifs, and the ancient Yin-Yang symbol trace a story of balance, complexity, and inner vision.
Cultural references span continents—African tribal patterns, Eastern calligraphy, and Indigenous glyphs converge in a vibrant tapestry of color and code. A gold-encrusted scorpion climbs the neck, symbolizing transformation, protection, and sacred mystery, while the crowned stopper evokes ritual and regality.
This piece, crafted from a reclaimed bottle, speaks to the artist’s ongoing exploration of rebirth through reclamation, and the belief that every surface—no matter how discarded—can become a canvas for the sacred.
