Jewel Juice: Green thumbs...and ring fingers

Jewel Juice is your main squeeze for all things accessories. 

Welcome to a new beat on CCL, Jewel Juice, the place to get your fill on everything accessories — well, mainly jewelry.

We thought we’d start the year off with a nod to Mother Nature. So you’re sick of the Syracuse winter and the awful bag-like bundles you’ve been forced to wear. We get it. But, don’t discount the innate inspiration and beauty she provides. Designers certainly haven’t.

While every industry is “going green,” not many can physically show consumers what that means. Jewelry designers, to our benefit, have done just that, creating amazing raw pieces that illustrate sustainability in all of its — and nature’s — beauty. Here are a few of our favorites: 

Hafsteinn Juliusson’s Growing Jewelry

Hafteinn Juliusson of Growing Jewelry

 

Hafteinn Juliusson, a product designer from Iceland, says he enjoys approaching design from new perspectives that reach a diverse range of people. “I want to be involved with society, ecology and try to avoid mainstream mass production,” he said. His latest jewelry line, Growing Jewelry, does just that as a collision of industry and nature give people unique pieces — and current environmental issues — to talk about.

Ruff&Cut 

Hand-crafted jewelry from Rough&Cut

If you want to go a step further, Rough&Cut is an online dealer with a purpose: providing glittering conscience and socially responsible luxury. Offering pieces by designers with a commitment to social and environmental responsibility, Rough&Cut offers a one-of-a-kind rawness in every hand-crafted piece.

Christine J. Brandt

 

Take a walk on the wild side with Brandt

Speaking of raw, Christine J. Brandt’s jewelry could easily blend in with your backyard. Growing up around the world, Brandt’s design stems from “exotic wood found, like her roots, all over the world.” She aims to keep her aesthetic as close to nature as possible, using a variety of naturally finished woods and completely unique — uncut, unpolished and not dyed — semi-precious stones and minerals.

- by Sarah Zimmerman