Moonrise Jewelry began in 2002 with a variety of core values that make both a great business while at the same time, ensuring that their profits hurt neither the planet or the people living on it.  Their lines are made up of pieces that are ethically sourced, support fair trade practices and that support their local environment.  Their pieces are hand made in their studio in Virginia to support their local and rural economy.

The winner of the Moonrise Jewelry contest was Anne-Marietvete.  We will be contacting her as soon as we can.

Moonrise Jewelry began in 2002 with a variety of core values that make both a great business while at the same time, ensuring that their profits hurt neither the planet or the people living on it.  Their lines are made up of pieces that are ethically sourced, support fair trade practices and that support their local environment.  Their pieces are hand made in their studio in Virginia to support their local and rural economy.

For review, they sent me these beautiful recycled glass earrings called Cobb.  These earrings look absolutely gorgeous on and I always get compliments when wearing them.  They are light, easy to wear and match with practically anything!  I am 100% behind eco-friendly jewelry but it still needs to be pretty and fun to wear — that’s absolutely no problem with these earrings or any of the other great designs that they make!

I would definitely recommend following both their facebook account where they announce some incredible sales and joining their mailing list for a $10 off coupon!

Want to try out a pair of their earrings for yourself?  Moonrise Jewelry has graciously offered a pair of pretty earrings called Abilene to one of my readers!  They are made of fair trade silver beads on sterling silver posts and feature purple lace agate.  I absolutely adore these earrings!  They would look great with everything from jeans and a tee shirt to a business suit and everything in between.

To Enter (One Time Only):   Leave a comment on this post about your favorite design at Moonrise Jewelry.  Good luck picking only one thing!  So many of their designs are eye catching.

• *Become a fan of Moonrise Jewelry on Facebook.
• *Join their mailing list (you’ll get a $10 coupon!).
• *Enter one of my other giveaways and leave a comment telling me.
• *Tell me how you heard about this giveaway.
• *Follow Green Colored Glasses on Twitter and ReTweet this giveaway RT @Green Colored Glasses Giveaway – Eco-Friendly Earrings From Moonrise Jewelry Giveaway (you can Tweet this once a day for Extra Entries)
• *Become a Fan of Green Colored Glasses on Facebook
• *Blog about this giveaway with a link to this post
• *Suscribe to Green Colored Glasses by RRS Feed

I stumbled across this gorgeous jewelry purely by accident one day on Etsy.  The colors and textures of the pieces really caught my eye and that’s when I realized that they were made from old stamps!

My mother-in-law loves collecting stamps from all over the world.  Recently, she just got back from Antarctica.  She sent us a few postcards from there which we’re saving the stamps from.  I’m not sure if she would love this jewelry or absolutely hate it because she couldn’t save the stamps but it definitely reminded me of her.

These pieces are amazing in that they show off the range of colors, patterns, designs and variety found in stamps.  The artist of Fox Glove Accessories has a great eye for deciding which part of the stamp should be featured and how it should be displayed.  Working out of Chicago, this artist is working her way through a huge collection of cancelled international stamps that she’s upcycling into gorgeous jewelry pieces.

The multicolor necklace featured on the left is definitely one of my favorite pieces.  The colors are extremely vivid so you can be sure that people will notice your handcrafted piece.  From this necklace, it’s almost hard to tell whether it is money or stamps underneath the resin of the pendants.  Absolutely gorgeous and would go with virtually anything.

I also really love these teardrop shaped earrings.  Each pair is made out of 8 different stamps which have been mounted and laminated to sturdy cardstock.  Each shape is individually cut by hand and strung through sterling silver hoop earrings.  There are a ton of different color combinations available in the store and each pair is completley unique.  These are waterproof, super lightweight and subtle enough to blend in with whatever you may be wearing.  However, the original life of the stamps can clearly be seen upon examination of the earrings.  That’s my favorite kind of upcycled product — on that shows it’s previous existence.

Lastly, I wanted to show off the gorgeous rings that are also available at this store.  I mean, what else are you going to wear with the earrings and the necklace, right?? I think the simplicity of some of the rings is simply stunning.  Many of the designs have been cut in such a way that it’s nearly impossible to tell that it used to be a stamp.  It might be fun seeing the look on people’s faces when you revealed what exactly your ring used to be!

There are also bracelets, cufflinks, stud earrings, drop earrings, a variety of necklace designs and some strand earrings (on sale for only $10 right now!).  Remember that supporting handmade is a way for you to stand up against mass production, mass consumption, waste and it’s beyond fun!  You can get a unique item made especially for you that no one else is likely to have anything like.  No more “twinsies” with your BFF.

A couple of weeks ago, I featured the Etsy shop LondonsGate and their incredible collection of upcycled watch movement jewelry.  Their pieces are a cool combination of steampunk, gothic, green, victorian and eco-chic.

The talented crafters of this shop have decided to giveaway this ring to one of my lucky GreenColoredGlasses readers!!!  The ring won’t be exactly as pictured but will be the same band and be very similar.

There are lots of easy ways to enter and support handcrafted and upcycled jewelry.  The giveaway will be open to people WORLDWIDE as LondonGate graciously didn’t want anyone to be left out.

Please leave a separate comment for each entry.  The first entry is mandatory and there are many bonus entries available.  I’ll choose with a random number generator on March 31, 2010.  Good luck and get entering!!! PS…Don’t forget to include your email address so that I can easily contact you if you are the lucky winner.

To Enter (One Time Only):   Leave a comment on this post about your favorite design at LondonsGate.

Bonus Entries:

• *Become a friend of LondonsGate on Facebook.
• *Tell me how you heard about this giveaway.
• *Purchase any item from LondonsGate and get 5 additional giveaways!!  (Please comment once for each entry)
• *Follow Green Colored Glasses on Twitter and ReTweet this giveaway RT @Green Colored Glasses Giveaway – Steampunk Ring by LondonsGate (you can Tweet this once a day for Extra Entries)
• *Become a Fan of Green Colored Glasses on Facebook
• *Blog about this giveaway with a link to this post
• *Suscribe to Green Colored Glasses by RRS Feed

The Etsy shop Londons Gate is jam packed with wonderfully steampunk designs.  Their pieces range from steampunk to gothic to victorian to just plain dark.

Many of their pieces involve the use of watch movements being repurposed into the focal point of the entire piece of jewelry.  They’ve got a fantastic selection of rings available on their site featuring many different kinds of watch movements.  One thing that I really like about this site is that what is pictured is exactly what you receive.  It’s not similar to or like what’s pictured, it really is the actual item.  This means you know exactly what the piece you choose will look like!

They do custom pieces or you can choose from their ever expanding selection available in their store.  I use the term “store” loosely as they claim this is not a business.  Just two young people working together developing their craft!

The pieces are quite affordable as well.  The ring pictured here is priced at $35.  It’s a 17 jewel watch movement attached to a filigree adjustable band.  That’s a steal of a deal for the huge statement that such a piece would make!  The ring prices vary in range but all are extremely budget friendly.

They’ve also got a variety of necklaces, cufflinks and even earrings for sale that utilize various watch movements.  My favorite necklace is the one pictured here with the black flower.  What a stunning accent piece that would look good in everything from casual wear to the office to a beautiful necklace to go with that little black dress.  It uses a vintage watch movement mounted to a vintage silver setting.  The black rose is what really set it off though.

This is definitely an Etsy shop worth checking back into again and again.  It sounds as though items are added almost daily.  They currently have 273 items for sale and I love almost each and every one.  Some of my favorites are the Lolita gothic hair clips that they have available in vintage silver settings.  Absolutely adorable!!  I love the flower designs and the skull designs.  You can even have them made in a different color to match a certain outfit!!

Amy Pfaffman is an artist and designer who makes gorgeous jewelry pieces from the most unlikely items.  She has a huge range of materials that she works with from resistors to coffee beans and everything you never ever imagined in between.

One line that I found particularly stunning was the assortment of jewelry that she makes from plastic used in architectural applications.  Between the two layers of used plastic, she sandwiches a selection of materials to make graphic and beautiful patterns.  Even the materials between the plastic is made up of 40% post-industrial reclaimed materials.  This is then cut into small pieces to be used in her jewelry.

This line of recycled plastic jewelry includes rings, bracelets, necklaces, bobby pins and earrings.  It’s nearly impossible to tell just what exactly the pieces are made from just by looking at them.  All you see is their beauty shining through in the array of colors and shapes intricately laid out between the recycled plastic.  Absolutely stunning!  Any of these pieces would make a great gift for Valentine’s Day or any other reason…or maybe even no reason at all.

Green Colored Glasses will most definitely be featuring this designer again and again.  I definitely recommend checking out Amy Pfaffman’s site to see some more of her amazing creations.  There is also a list of places where her work can be purchased in person or online.

Looking for a great eco-friendly gift for a music lover on your list?  Check out the site Wear Your Music.  It’s a really cool project that reuses old guitar strings that would normally be headed for the trash and makes jewelry out of them.  Even better, a lot of the proceeds from these bracelets go to charity!

The fashion bracelets like the one shown above from pink guitar string, come in a huge range of colors.  They’re available for only $10 each or 10 bracelets for $70.  They are made from used guitar strings and a portion of the proceeds go to charities that support music.  These would make great gifts or stocking stuffers for friends (or yourself).  You could buy the 10 pack and give everyone one or two each.  They look great with a couple stacked on top of each other on the wrist and fit all sizes.  This bracelet supports music, charity and the environment.

Even cooler are the artist bracelets.  These bracelets are hand made out of recycled silver and used guitar strings donated by dozens and dozens of different artists of every genre.  100% of the profits of these bracelets are donated to an artist chosen charity and are listed on the site.  There’s some great charities benefiting from these sales though — Unicef, Rock against Cancer, Peta, Michael J. Fox Parkinson’s Research Foundation, 1% for the Planet, Rock the Earth and many other great causes.

They have some great artists available in a huge variety of price ranges.  The silver bracelet shown above is one of James Hetfield’s strings.  His charity of choice is Music Cares.  At $250 for each bracelet, it’s a very cool Metallica souvenir that benefits charity and the planet.  Kinda expensive but I do love Metallica!!

There’s lots of other artists like Carrie Underwood, Avril Lavigne, Dolly Parton, Ziggy Marley, Pete Townsend and even the Naked Cowboy!  Many of the artists I’ve heard of before and many I haven’t.  There’s a big price range difference…The least expensive is a $50 string bracelet from Yuto Miyazawa who is the world’s youngest professional guitar player in the Guinness Book of World Records.  The most expensive is Eric Clapton’s silver bracelet at $500.  Very, very cool!  Worth checking this site out.  It’s full of big names, little names and everything in between with the money going to a host of great causes.

This week’s Etsy find repurposes and refurbishes watches of all kinds into some very stunning pieces of jewelry.  The seller — A Second Time — has a wide variety of pieces including necklaces, cufflinks, earrings, brooches and tie tacks as well as a selection of watches available for sale.  The pieces of watches that are used in her pieces include the watch face itself, the bezel, the gears and springs inside of the watch.  Pretty much any piece of the watch itself may be found in one of her artistic creations of extremely wearable jewelry for men and women.  I really love how recognizable some of the pieces are as former time pieces.  This kind of repurposing is great because it’s like being a walking ad for eco-friendly living.  Everyone sees what the item used to be — this can lead to a conversation starter or even an inspiration for greener living.

When selecting which pieces of the clock will be used, the artistian ensures that the piece is no longer viable for use as it’s intended purpose.  This ensures that only pieces of watches that are “useless” are used to make the jewelry out of.  If the watch is salvageable, it’s repaired and available for sale at her shop as well!  This kind of fix or use policy really makes sure that the time pieces are kept out of the garbage and reused in one way or another.  There’s a wide variety of styles of pieces available for sale in her shop.  Go and check it out!!

This week’s “Hump Day” find is repurposed zippers.  Lots and lots of zippers!  Etsy artisan Amalia Versaci definitely has a love of all things zipper-y and it shows in her work.  She uses every bit of the zipper — the pull, the metal teeth and the banding that holds the metal teeth together.  She finds vintage zippers — sometimes as old as the 1930′s! — and creates unique and fabulous work out of them.  Lucky for us, she also sells it on Etsy!

I’ve never seen jewelry quite like these pieces that are somehow reminiscent of the 80′s to me.  Retro 80′s styling is definitely “in” again.  The bold, bright colors of the zipper pulls on the necklace especially harken back to days of my youth.  I love how these earrings and necklace don’t try to hide their previous use.  Instead, the artist embraces it’s past use and makes that the main feature of the piece itself!  Anyone who looked even remotely closely at the jewelry who recognize it immediately.  One common, everyday item turned into a beautiful accessory.

These pieces are also quite affordable as well with the earrings being $14 plus shipping and the necklaces being $36 plus shipping, both in USD.  She’s got a huge range of other jewelry available for your perusal on her site as well — zipper tape earrings and necklaces, earrings and necklaces of pull tabs of every color and design imaginable as well as a variety of bracelets.  She ships to Canada, the US and everywhere else with really pretty reasonable shipping rates as well.  But if you think that jewelry could be the only use for these upcycled zippers, think again!  She also makes some really fantastic jars that are covered in zippers that require more than a passing glance to realize what it’s made with.

There’s also some fun and colorful magnets which could be used in the office or in the home to hold up the odd bits and pieces of notes, photos or whatever that must be remembered.  I’d definitely recommend stopping by her Etsy store or gallery site to check out the huge range of items that she has available for purchasing.  You could really make some of your loved ones Christmas’ a little green-er with her amazing pieces or add some fun flair to your own wardrobe or decor.

Love her or hate her, Barbie is an instantly recognizable pop culture icon — even if it’s just a tiny piece of her!  Artist and designer Margaux Lange has found a way to upcycle various pieces of Barbie’s (and Ken’s) anatomy into a stunning array of jewelery.  This sexy bracelet is just one example of how these pieces of plastic can become eye catching accessories.

This brooch ingeniously uses the profile of Barbie’s face to form a flower shape.  Margaux has found a way to use every imaginable part from the Mattel dolls — yes, even Ken’s bulge is present on some pieces.  She also takes custom orders at her Etsy shop.  Many of her designs are one of a kind pieces that are sure to be conversation starters.  You can tell everyone you run into how important it is to reuse items.  Margaux says:
“I take pleasure in the contradiction of transforming mass-produced objects into unique, and distinctly handmade, wearable artworks. In my Plastic Body Series jewelry work, I am re-purposing salvaged Barbie dolls as the accessory instead of being accessorized.”

These dismembered hands make for a very interesting hinged bracelet.  The rings add a pop of color to this racially harmonious accessory.  And there certainly should be many hands from which to choose.  On the Barbie press page, they proudly proclaim that enough Barbie dolls have been produced since their first one in 1959 to circle the globe 7 times!  Just think of all the wasted plastic, oil and resources that have gone into making these dolls.  I wonder how many of them are just sitting in landfills.

The artist’s pieces range from innocent and cute to downright raunchy so there is sure to be something that appeals to everyone.  Even though Barbie has just turned 50, she still has an impressive following.  90% of American girls aged 3-6 own at least one Barbie with the average number of dolls owned by this group being 12.  The dolls are available in over 150 countries and another two dolls are sold every second.  Every second of every day of every week.  That adds up to 1,209,600 dolls sold every week!  It’s no wonder that that Barbie has made Mattel one of the largest manufacturer’s of apparel in the world.  They’ve used over 105 million yards of fabric to make her tiny outfits.
I’m sure that more than a few of these have ended up in the world’s landfills once the girls who play with them grow older and grow out of them.  Buying and wearing Margaux’s jewelry is a great way to get at least some of the unused plastic out of the trash pile and put it back in the treasure pile.