HOLIDAY GEMS

In Business, September-October, 2005, Vol. 27, No. 5, p. 32

ECOSTYLE

Delia Montgomery

What are the standards and ethics to verify jewelry appropriate for the sustainable green market? The best way to answer that question is to study what ecostyle designers create today. Then you can establish your own standards.
Linda Jereb of By The Sea Jewelry says sea glass collecting is her passion. The medium has many forms of expression, such as seaglass, beachglass, mermaids tears, ocean glass, or trash glass. Sea glass is increasingly hard to find, but the best places to search are populated or high-traffic rivers, ocean shorelines, and bays. Settings with currents and waves are most likely to provide smooth, top quality sea glass.
Sea glass is a form of recycling and therefore suitable for the green market. But Linda offers an additional way to recycle glass into jewelry. Whether for visual or sentimental reasons, she can utilize customers' glass instead of her own finds. With either glass medium, think sparkling earrings, pendants, necklaces, and bracelets.
John and Bonnie Abler of Abler Art Glass Gallery offer design services for recycled glass. In fact, their services entail residential and commercial restoration, stained glass windows, garden art, and about anything else you can think of - in addition to jewelry pieces. They've been using leaded, fused, painted, blown and etched glass techniques for nearly 30 years, since 1976.
Jewelry artists the Abler's work with includes Karin Houben, Barbara Bosco, Carol Silrum, and Margie Magnuson. Karin's designs have been published in Vogue and Mademoiselle magazines, filmed on MTV's House of Style with Cindy Crawford, and worn by celebrities such as Madonna, Steven Tyler (Aerosmith), Liv Tyler, Angelique Kidjo, Amber Valetta, and Joan Osborne. Thus, many interpret glass jewelry, based on famed buyers, as verified cool!
Nita Mehnert of Copperhead Studio offers glass bead necklaces torch-worked from shards of broken stained glass. The result is beautiful jewelry hand-formed from old windows, giving new life to broken panes. Years of sunlight through colored glass lend an opalescent sheen to these beads. Each bead is different and each necklace is unique. Nita has many colors available to choose from.
Selected handcrafted jewelry pieces from Ayala Bar Design are composed of recycled fabrics, nonprecious metals, glass beads, and stones. It's the recycled fabrics that placed Israel's leading costume jewelry designer and exporter into the green market. Two seasonal collections contain more than 250 pieces of jewelry marketed in select retail outlets, specialty stores, boutiques, art galleries and museum stores in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and the Far East.
Chris Cooney designs for Cloth of the Gods and Planet Hemp. The hemp is botanically or low impact dyed by a guild of fiber artists and folk artisans headquartered in Thailand. The company's vision of sharing the wonderful talents of indigenous and local craftspeople in Asia developed more than 10 years ago. Chris has a strong commitment to the environment and the well-being of artists he works with. Wholesale, retail, and private labeling services are offered.
Jay H. Silver is President of Motherboard Enterprises, Inc. Founded in 1991, the company specializes in the manufacturing of functional art products utilizing reclaimed circuit boards and other unique materials. Buyers can capture the intrinsic beauty of technology while providing an environmentally friendly alternative to landfill additions. Check out the beautiful cuff links destined to appeal whether sitting in the boardroom or out for a night on the town.
Another great cuff link invention is from Ward Wallau of Tokens & Coins, Inc. Ward is licensed by the Metropolitan Transit Authority to sell token memorabilia. Since 1991, discontinued tokens have gained new life from an eight-step process of grading, acid-washing, oxidizing, and hand polishing. Other products include recycled scrabble game pieces which can be customized into necklaces and bracelets.
Today natural style retailers have choices to match their earth-friendly images from simple to avant-garde. Designers can find inspirational motivation from recycling and nature. Eco jewelry is growing in popularity as mining for precious metals and gems are growing less desirable to socially conscious buyers. Enjoy the expansion of resourceful creators and assure your own definition of ecostyle jewelry.

Delia Montgomery is an environmental design consultant and personal eco shopper for homes, bodies and gardens. Questions or comments are welcome. Visit www.ChicEco.com or e-mail: Info@ChicEco.com.

RESOURCES
www.bytheseajewelry.com
www.ablerartglass.com
copperhd@gate.net
www.ayalabar.com
www.clothofthegods.com
www.motherboardinc.com
www.tokens-coins.com

Copyright 2007, The JG Press, Inc.