Saturday, May 14, 2011

Meet The Collective: Elle B. Designs

The newest artist to join the collective is Laura Greenamyer. She's a lovely lady who lives around the corner from the store and has been coming by since we opened. She was always telling me about her jewelry line until one day we decided that it just makes sense to have her pieces in the store.

Stones Bracelet $89
What I like about Laura is her use of Silver. She mainly uses Precious Metal Clay (PMC) which is the recycled material left over from photographic and x-ray film processing. The fine powdered pure silver particles recovered from the photo developing process are mixes into a binder, forming a clay-like material. Once a piece is made from the clay and air dried, is is fired in a kiln over 1500F degrees. The binder holding the metal particles burns off and the particles fuse together. When the object cools it is solid metal, 99.9% silver (Fine Silver).
Leaf Earrings $52
Laura also uses sterling silver as well as gold filled silver in her pieces. She takes her inspiration from nature, growing up in Hawaii, moving to Arizona and finally settling down in Seattle. The tropical plants and the ocean of Hawaii mixed with the cacti and desert of Arizona and the pine trees and rain of the Pacific Northwest are all apparent in her designs.

Floral Square Earrings $32

Alpha Dog Chain $45

Square Stone Earrings $48

Wood Print Necklace $32

Laura makes all the items by hand, in Seattle, with high quality materials, attention to detail, and a lot of love! Come by and take a look at her full collection at SPUN Sustainable Collective.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Mother's Day For Picky Moms

If you're like me, then you dread Mother's Day coming around every year. Unlike my mom's birthday, Mother's Day feels like my chance to show my mom what a great mom she is and how much I love her. I seem to mess it up every year since she kindly asks me for a gift receipt a few minutes after opening up what I thought was "the perfect gift".

This year, I hope to live up to her expectations and not hear her say the dreaded gift receipt question. I'm lucky to have a shop full of beautiful clothes, jewelry and gifts to pick from so I intend to make this Mother's Day special.

Here are some of my picks for your mom (all available at SPUN Sustainable Collective):

Organic Cotton Apron (By: A Greener Kitchen)
$28
Book Necklaces (By: Nico Papergoods)
$26


Spiral Notebook (By: Nico Papergoods)
$15

Travel Journal - includes pencil & bookmark (By: Nico Papergoods)
$16

Photo Frame (By: Nico Papergoods)
$10
Braided Leather Bracelet (By: Dottyspeck)
$40

Robin Egg Magnesite Necklace (By: Joanna Morgan Designs)
$130

Cloud, Wishbone & Tear Necklaces (By: Dottyspeck)
$58-$68

Onyx and Silver Necklace (By: Joanna Morgan Designs)
$130

Green Aventurine Teardrop Earrings (By: Joanna Morgan Designs)
$95
Three Strands Agate & Wood Necklace
(By: Joanna Morgan Designs)
$125

Sprig Necklaces (By: Dottyspeck)
$92