Collaborative Earring Project with Industrial Grace Restoration

My friend Becky of Industrial Grace Restoration & I are collaborating on an earring project inspired by my Twins! Collection. Perfectly mismatched. We both like to work with found, salvaged, rescued and restored materials and both enjoy each other's work. Be sure to check out her blog and her facebook.

This was Becky's brilliant idea, she asked me if I'd be interested in a collaborative project like this and a few months later, I opened the mailbox to the tiniest, hand crafted box (from recycled materials of course! She had packed into it 12 single earrings, each very different from the other. Included was a sweet note with the instructions: to make a pair for each earring, keep 6 pairs for myself, send the other pairs back and send some new single earrings for her to make pairs.

How fun! It has taken me several more months to get back to my studio and supplies. I finally have the studio dug out and this is the first project I am working on.

Sweet note, tiny box and Becky's earring contributions

Becky's creative earring contributions, repurposed and salvaged materials galore (love it!) 

Round 1 of pulling beads and playing around with pairings. I love this part of the design process. 

After a couple of days of work here is my first batch of finished earring pairs.

  

   Some of the finished pairs, Becky's earrings are on the left and mine on the right of each pair. 

All 12 pairs finished! What a colorful collection full of interesting textures and spatial plays. Lots of rescued, repurposed, salvaged and some new materials too! Becky's creations are at the left of each pair and mine are to the right. 

YazBerry Jewelry Collection: Urban Vintage

The Urban Vintage Collection is the modern mash-up of my earth loving, recycling fanatic self and my vintage loving, fashionista self. It features found objects, metal components with yummy patina and verdigris, salvaged vintage elements from discarded clothing and jewelry, carefully paired with new findings and elements. Reduce, reuse, recycle, fashion. Raw, modern, edgy, industrial, yet elegant and sophisticated. Urban vintage may sound like it contradicts itself but it's that contradiction that makes its beauty. Many pieces have sold but some are still available on my facebook page and on my Etsy shop. Loving this look but not seeing quite what you desire? Fear not, you can contact me and share your ideas and I can create a custom piece for you.

My Dad Says: "Bring Back the Hankies"

In my quest of late for more green solutions in my life, I came across this innovative etsy seller moocowmomma.etsy.com She makes so many delightful, affordable, reusable products I am interested in adding several of them to my shopping cart right now.
From in order, as read like a book, are (click on the link to go directly to the product page: reusable travel size tissues, reusable sandwich wraps/snack baggies, reusable sandwich bags lined with EVA, reusable mop pads for Swiffer type mops, reusable paper towel replacement.

My father has always sworn by hankies aka handkerchiefs aka kerchiefs...good old fashioned reusable tissues! They are hard to come by in stores these days, though you can usually find a boring, men's version in nicer department stores. I love the colorful, soft variety that moocowmomma has available with the smart, travel sized pouch. So smart, and as hankies were a part of my childhood laundering experience, super easy to throw in the wash and surprisingly don't make anything else gross. Everyone comes out clean in the end ;)

Moocowmomma is a true innovator, offering unique solutions to basic household needs. Her sandwich wraps are a fine example of this; they are unique in design and versatile in utility. They can be used for your sandwich, or for any variety of snacks. Like many of her products, one should use their imagination to explore the many possible uses of each.

A great option with all of moocowmomma's reusable cloth options, is that she lets you customize the colors and fabric. For options on her available choices, visit: http://s194.photobucket.com/albums/z138/moo_cow_momma/ a Photobucket.com album she directs shoppers to from her store.

Moocowmomma's sandwich bags are customizable too. You can pick the fabric and in some of her listings she offers different bag sizes as well. While there are other sellers out there making reusable sandwich bags, what I really like about moocowmomma's is that she is lining them with EVA, a food safe vinyl product. This also makes them easy to clean.

And now for my two favorite products in moocowmomma's store. I intend to invest in some of these! I love the reusable wet dry mop pads. Designed for Swiffer style mops and similar products. These are a true cost saver considering how much a pack of disposable mop pads costs and knowing how long of a life flannel has (I know, I had the same set of well loved sheep print flannel bed sheets for probably 15 years!!! (they might still even be in the linen closet at my parent's house ;) ).

Okay, back from purchasing my own set of the lovely reusable paper towel replacements. (Sorry folks, the above link will now take you to the sold item page, however, moocowmomma relists items often, so you should be able to get your own set from there). When I first found moocowmomma's store, I fell in love with these reusable paper towels. BRILLIANT! For ten bucks plus shipping, you can get reusable fabric towels that can be used in any way you would use a paper towel. They are super absorbant, lint free (so you can do the windows), colorful, totally washable and will last as long as my favorite childhood flannel bedsheets! (i.e. forever). I already use t-shirt pieces for general household rags. Which I love and highly recommend you do, but they don't behave like a paper towel wood in some instances. Moocowmomma's paper towel replacements pick up where my t-shirts fall short. I also love how cost effective they are.

Her product offering also includes cloth dinner napkins, reusable produce bags, as well as some particularly innovative reusable products including reusable toilet paper and reusable feminine products, the insertable sort as well as the pads. I'm not sure I'm quite ready to give up toilet paper for the reusable sort...as I'm not keen on the washing them after aspect of things, however, the prospect for softness does sound alluring.

Sick of Throwing Away Plastic Every Time You Buy Apples?

As a child born in the 80's I was one of the early recipients of the "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" programming. It stuck. Which is good. I remember in venues ranging from school to summer camp, receiving kid friendly education on the subject.

I'm known to pause for a moment to consider whether when given the choice to use a paper towel or electric hand dryer, which uses more resources and costs more to produce. I still do no know this answer. If you do, please enlighten me, it will shorten the length of my public restroom visits greatly. I have a similar dilemma with paper towels versus paper napkins in the office...which costs more to produce and uses more resources. And a never ending dilemma of which is better, paper or plastic. I'm working on bringing reusable bags to the grocery store.

I find myself obsessively recycling. I put my receipts into my wallet not for keeping track of my finances but rather to later recycle them. I'm a very avid sandwich bag reuser and plastic bag recycler. In a house with three cooks, we end up with lots of plastic bags (again...we are working on remembering our reusable grocery bags...it's getting better). I have even been on a personal campaign for the last few years to not put my produce in those "thrown-away-as-soon-as-you-get-home" produce bags, not a fan, on the poison list, gets upset when the bagger puts my produce in a produce bag anyway.

Last week however, my delicious, in season, perfectly ripe nectarines were massacred by the rest of my groceries! Crisis. Then I remembered I'd seen an Etsy artist with these cute mesh reusable produce bags a while back. Accordingly, Etsy being my source for all things good and desirable (aka handmade) I set off on a quest to find these produce bags and any other earth friendly, food protecting devices.

Below are eight of my favorites, with links to each in their respective stores.



Row 1 left to right: GrannyBJ, cottontopquilts, amyroseberlin, xunca
Row 2 left to right: amkdesigns, alohaokaaina, LoveForEarth, ficklefaerie

ROW 1: GrannyBJ's crocheted bags expand nicely to accommodate several fruits or veggies. cottontopquilt makes wonderful reusable sandwich bags. amyroseberlin uses a flexible mesh material with a satin drawstring and hand printed patches. xunca uses simple cotton muslin and gives you the option of having a graphic printed on it and to select the sizes you would like.

ROW 2: amkdesigns includes with her mesh produce bags a handy storage case with a convenient hook that you can attach to your reusable grocery bags. alohaokaaina uses nylon which is both waterproof, super light, and fits into a really small space so it's easy to transport. These are great for storing dry goods too. LoveForEarth uses netting with matching satin ribbon drawstring which slides easily. They offers two sizes in your order. ficklefaerie caters to the fashionista with color coordinated nylon mesh bags and matching storage pouch. She offers sets of six with varying sizes and different color options.

Remember, the "three R's" (it's not reading, (w)riting and (a)rithmatic anymore): REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE!

Note: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle image found at: http://www.magsonline.com/Green.aspx