First I went to a thrift store and brought back with me a bunch of colorful belts. Mostly plastic, around $1, $1.50. 

Then I made brooches out of the belts, trying to take advantage of the surfaces and textures naturally occurring in the material. Each brooch is made out of a single continuous belt in its entirety, including all of its original metal hardware.

I created brass settings with 'arms' so that they could be attached to each brooch mechanically without the use of adhesives or drills.