Mission Jewelry Atelier Now Sparkles Online

 

Pinterest addicts, watch out. Under-the-radar Mission jewelry atelier Love & Luxe has a new web site stocked with oh-so-pinnable pics featuring its collection of jewelry by independent designers, metalsmiths and fine artists – all curated by resident artist and owner Betsy Barron.

Don’t see what you’re looking for? Don’t worry, you won’t have to head to a big box jewelry just yet. The Love & Luxe store is also a working studio with a trained staff and plenty of artist connects to help you design custom wedding and commitment bands, necklaces, earrings, rings and bracelets.

Sure, look online, but there are many reasons to visit the Mission store’s stunning collection in person: pieces are thoughtfully arranged in glass-topped displays to emphasize the importance of each piece’s unique qualities so, says Barron, “customers can enjoy the experience of discovery.”

So what will they discover?

“When looking for new collections, design and craftsmanship are taken equally into consideration so that we can offer jewelry that will become part of a life long collection, making careful use of the earth’s natural resources,” says Barron of the store’s selection process.

Precious object seekers, browse away online or at Love & Luxe, 1169 Valencia Street, SF.

love & luxe store

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Photography courtesy of Love & Luxe

Snap Judgment: Silver Ear Threads

Bar None ear threads by San Francisco's Enflux

Our very-visual, (almost) chatter-free snap judgment of the day: the super lightweight and low maintenance glam of the sterling silver Bar None ear threads, $15, by San Francisco-based jewelry designer Enflux. (Perhaps) even better: these simple style-helpers are priced right in line with our post-holiday budgets.

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Don’t Call it ‘Frisco: Meagan Reelitz’s Prize-Winning Ring

Diamonds Are in the Cracks Ring by Meagan Reelitz

Oakland jewelry designer Meagan Reelitz

Finding beauty in life’s rough spots never fails to impress. And so much the better if that beauty happens to involve diamonds and San Francisco. That’s just what you’ll find sparkling away in Oakland designer Meagan Reelitz‘s Diamonds Are in the Cracks ring, the grand prize winner in the Jewelry Artisan’s Collective 2011 Design Challenge. The most recent installment of the annual jewelry challenge asked designers to create work inspired by the San Francisco experience and the theme, “Don’t Call it ‘Frisco.”

Using earthquakes as her starting point (and that’s about as real-deal San Francisco as it gets), Reelitz created a piece with both style and historical substance.

“I took the seismographic report from the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake and altered it to fit nicely on a ring band of sterling silver. I then hand-sawed the report into the band. I set 5 diamonds within the cracks,” Reelitz says of her process.

Stay tuned for news of Reelitz’s upcoming exhibition at Maiden Lane’s Manika Jewelry.

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A Novel Idea: Braeden Glass Jewelry

The plot: a queer-identified transgender man from Oakland wants to spread awareness, write a novel and pay for surgery, roughly in that order. To advance this page-turner of a tale, he launches a jewelry company named after a key character in the novel. It may sound like fiction, but that’s essentially the story behind just-launched jewelry line Braeden Glass by designer Ayden Oliver Alberry.

The jewelry line is the real-life company of a fictitious character in Oliver’s in-progress novel, and there’s an etsy shop, a web site and a Kickstarter campaign that go along with it. If the Kickstarter goal of $500 is reached by late next week, Alberry will use the funds to expand the line.

But beyond the backstory, the reason to scan the line’s moody, bohomenian-chic necklaces and bracelets is based purely on looks. Wood, mixed metal charms, pyrite beads, crystals and leather mingle on multi-strand wrist-wrappers that would fit right in during your next arm party.

And that certainly makes for a happy ending.

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Snap Judgment: Friedasophie’s Delicate Double Finger Ring

Our very-visual, (almost) chatter-free snap judgment of the day: an alternative to the usually-bulky look of two-finger rings awaits in the Delicate Silver Double Finger Ring, $45, made of two one-millimeter silver bands soldered together and hand-hammered by San Francisco jewelry label Friedasophie.

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