Brian Wilson climbs down the steep steps into a cramped dark basement, turns on the room’s only light and gets to work.

He bellies up to a tin table he found in the trash and focuses on the tiny bits of metal he finds during walks through his neighborhood.

Wilson, 28, is an Auburn jewelry maker who specializes in found object art.

“I go out once a week and try to find something,” said the 2004 graduate of Edward Little High School. “Castoffs, trash, junk,” is how Wilson describes what he looks for, but typewriters, sewing machines and clocks is what he finds.  

He takes apart the mechanical devices and the tiny gears, chunks of metal and small pins that he finds inside are the gems he uses to make his jewelry. 

Old keys, bottle caps and spark plug spacers have also factored into Wilson’s designs on occasion. 

“Anything with a mechanical side to it,” he said. 

Wilson calls his business Detritus Designs, which translates into designing with odds and ends.

“Most of my childhood was yard sales and flea markets,” he said. He grew up in an 1850s farmhouse surrounded by his parents’ passion — antiques.

Wilson said his jewelry-making grew from two interests. “I have an appreciation for everything that’s old” and “I have always been fascinated by science.

“I’ve always been very technical,” said the father of two. “I started taking things apart when I was about six.”

Wilson displayed his work during the recent Mini-Maker Faire in Lewiston.

“Besides from running out of business cards, it turned out very well,” he said. He brought along his “feminine perspective adviser.”

Wilson said that being a man who makes jewelry out of junk sometimes requires some female input. 

His girlfriend, Sara, fits that role. “She’s my lovely model too,” he said.