Jewelry

Passion for jewelry, recycling lead local retiree to use talents for charity - Kansas City Star

After owning a bead shop for 20 years, Leawood resident Kathy Corbin knew more than a little about making jewelry.

Now, she’s using that skill on behalf of people approaching the end of their lives.

Corbin repairs and fashions jewelry for Top Drawer, an upscale resale boutique in the Ranch Mart Shopping Center at 95th Street and Mission Road in Leawood. Sale proceeds at Top Drawer benefit Kansas City Hospice & Palliative Care.

Because of her jewelry-recycling efforts, Corbin has received a 2018 Heart of Hospice Award from the Missouri Hospice & Palliative Care Association.

Each year, hospices in Missouri nominate individuals and programs in different categories. Corbin won in the category for administrative volunteers.

Another Kansas City Hospice nominee won in the employee category. Stephanie “Stevie” Shuchart, of Overland Park, who has a master’s degree in social work, developed the Passages program at Kansas City Hospice & Palliative Care, which provides more intensive counseling to patients, caregivers and family members who are dealing with issues beyond grief and loss.

Corbin found her passion for Top Drawer in her retirement years. Until selling the business in 2010, she owned The Bead Shop at 9009 Metcalf Ave. in Overland Park.

After watching Kansas City Hospice & Palliative Care minister to a woman she had been caring for, Corbin began volunteering at Top Drawer in the fall of 2013.

Top Drawer’s jewelry selection was rather skimpy at that time, and many donated items were broken or out of style. In addition to sorting and pricing, Corbin repaired what jewelry she could, but she also saw potential in hopelessly broken necklaces, bracelets and brooches.

By January 2015, she had decided to start the Jewelry for Hospice Project.

“My goal,” she said, “was to increase our jewelry donations and also make new jewelry for the store. I have now made around 1,100 pieces that have all sold in Top Drawer over the past three years.”

Corbin asked churches and businesses to collect old jewelry for the cause. Many did, including a Bible study group at the Church of the Resurrection. After gathering items for two months, the group sent someone to deliver the goods.

“I’m telling you, she had a trunk load,” Corbin said.

Using contacts from her time in the bead business, Corbin augmented her supplies by soliciting donations from designers and distributors around the country. About 10 vendors now donate regularly, providing everything from odds and ends to finished pieces.

In her basement studio, she uses salvaged chains, clasps, beads and stones to create necklaces and other pieces for the resale boutique. In what she calls “collage necklaces,” Corbin incorporates pieces of broken jewelry onto wire frames.

“It’s basically crocheting with beads,” she said.

A second designer, Jenny McClelland, joins Corbin on Fridays to make jewelry for Top Drawer.

“I am a firm believer in conserving material, so reusing the jewelry components fits into my personal philosophy of recycling as much as possible,” Corbin said. “That’s another reason I love Top Drawer. We sell beautiful clothes, jewelry and home decor and give them a new life. This keeps lovely items from ending up in a landfill and supports an amazing nonprofit.”

Top Drawer, she added, is not a thrift shop. All clothes and accessories are in perfect or near-perfect condition, she said, and the shop also receives donations of new clothes.

When the store is closed on Sundays, Corbin visits Top Drawer to arrange the jewelry cases. She brings in the items that she and McClelland have completed during the week along with sorted donations that need to be priced. She also picks up new jewelry donations to be processed at home.

Corbin said that when she first arrived, Top Drawer had only one case and it was 90 percent empty. Now, she fills two jewelry cases, a table and an armoire “loaded” with finished donations sorted by color.

“We are trying very hard to increase our jewelry donations,” Corbin said. “We need a good mix of donated jewelry and our handmade jewelry.”

She encourages talented jewelry designers to contact Top Drawer if they would like to help with the jewelry project. And, of course, all donations are welcome.

“You never know what we can use,” Corbin said.