We are excited to present the 1949 Ford Superior Coach Works Bus collection.
We always go on hunting adventures to various junkyards to gather our materials, taking parts of vintage cars to bring back to the studio and give new life as jewelry.
The Joyride Jewelry 1949 Bus Collection
The part we are featuring today (a cowl off an old 1949 Ford Superior Coach Works Bus) was given to us by fellow friends and artists, Dave & Rosie, who wanted to see it put to good use. Dave has a love for old trucks and buses and when a friend called saying they needed an old bus removed off some property Dave jumped at the opportunity to save it. The bus was only partially intact, Dave did not realize that it had been cut in two nor that the entire front 1/3 of the bus was missing. Still he took on the task of saving it and hauling it back to his own field of old and decaying trucks.
Unbeknownst to Dave, this old bus had a previous life filled with history that eventually revealed itself through a hand painted sign on the side of the bus that read "Circle Route Garage". Originally known as the Circle Route Stage Company founded in 1894 they had taken on the arduous and dangerous task of transporting miners, travelers and tourists through the infamous Red Mountain Pass high in the San Juan mountains of Southwest Colorado. The route was one of the earliest, steepest and most treacherous mountain toll roads ever constructed. The company eventually changed its name to the "Circle Route Garage" in 1913 with the purchase of their first gasoline automobile and continued their two wheel drive "Stage" service well into the 1960's.
"Unit 2" of the Circle Route (as was painted near the bus's front folding door) was waiting to be given new life in the hands of Dave & Rosie. We feel grateful to have an unusable piece of this old bus to create jewelry with so that the life and history of it may continue to live on.
