Eventually this ten year exploration grew into the body of work entitled "City Flora/City Flotsam."

The materials used for her "City Flotsam" series seem light and ephemeral, though culturally loaded.
Brightly colored crack vials and caps suggest the pieces of a child's necklace, but also the trade beads used by seventeenth-century traders and slavers.
Yager combines these materials into intricately arranged  patterns that pay tribute to Native Americans and enslaved Africans.
 
Underlying each piece is "all the richness that went into its making", the workbench and tools that were used in the process of its formation, the cultural residue of crack vials and other objects that provided inspiration and materials for the work, and its historical and cultural context.

Balancing "the historical continuity of factors such as scale and form on the one hand and the historical discontinuity between materials, techniques and style on the other", Yager creates "thoroughly modern" counterparts of traditional  jewelry forms.

Through the combination of historical context and materials Yager articulates her feelings of loss and mourning, so it is not surprising that she was also influenced by mourning jewelry.
At the same time, the intentional transformation of "degraded materials" into works of art is redemptive and hopeful.

Pieces such as Bullet Worry Strand (1995-1999) which incorporates spent bullet casings and American Ruff (2000) which is made from discarded crack vials and caps, are considered exemplars of found-material jewelry.
American Ruff is now part of the Philadelphia Museum of Art's permanent collection.

"This work is not for the individual.
It's totally about larger issues," she says. "
I create authentic art that is of its time and of its place, of my place.
I subscribe to the theory that whatever you're looking for, it's right there."
Eventually this ten year exploration grew into the body of work entitled "City Flora/City Flotsam." 
The materials used for her "City Flotsam" series seem light and ephemeral, though culturally loaded. Brightly colored crack vials and caps suggest the pieces of a child's necklace, but also the trade beads used by seventeenth-century traders and slavers. Yager combines these materials into intricately arranged  patterns that pay tribute to Native Americans and enslaved Africans.  
Underlying each piece is "all the richness that went into its making", the workbench and tools that were used in the process of its formation, the cultural residue of crack vials and other objects that provided inspiration and materials for the work, and its historical and cultural context.
Balancing "the historical continuity of factors such as scale and form on the one hand and the historical discontinuity between materials, techniques and style on the other", Yager creates "thoroughly modern" counterparts of traditional  jewelry forms.
Through the combination of historical context and materials Yager articulates her feelings of loss and mourning, so it is not surprising that she was also influenced by mourning jewelry. At the same time, the intentional transformation of "degraded materials" into works of art is redemptive and hopeful.
Pieces such as Bullet Worry Strand (1995-1999) which incorporates spent bullet casings and American Ruff (2000) which is made from discarded crack vials and caps, are considered exemplars of found-material jewelry. American Ruff is now part of the Philadelphia Museum of Art's permanent collection.
"This work is not for the individual. It's totally about larger issues," she says. "I create authentic art that is of its time and of its place, of my place. I subscribe to the theory that whatever you're looking for, it's right there."
Jan Yager