grammar girl

The first thing we absolutely knew we wanted in our store was artwork by Puji Sherer.  We loved it’s simple, natural shapes and we thought the use of re-claimed windows as a canvas was downright clever.  When we first saw her work, it was at a cute little shop called “House Dressing”.  Sadly, we were quickly told that they had an exclusive thing going with her.  However, a ray of hope came (for us, at least) when we found out only a few weeks later that they were going out of business.  As luck would have it, they closed up shop right before we opened Noun and we were able to swoop in and offer Puji a new home for her paintings.  We aren’t sure how Puji feels about it, but we think it was destiny, seeing that we couldn’t have planned for things to line up any better than they did.  We’ve sold her pretty picture windows for over two years now, with no intention of ever letting her leave…the shop just wouldn’t be the same.  And besides, she is hilarious and we like being able to say that we are friends with her.  It multiplies our “hip” quotient several times over.

Anyway, the big news is that Puji brought us much more than paintings this week.  She brought us pottery!  Each bowl is hand formed and embellished with her signature images – flora, fauna, and both organic and graphic shapes.  They are seriously amazing and we’re so proud that they get their debut in our shop.

So you know how the local news tries to find the “Northwest Connection” in every national and international story? It’s so annoying and makes those newscasters look so desperate for ratings. If you ask us, you either watch the news or you don’t, whether you have a geographical connection to it or not. Right?

Well, maaaaybe…

You see, we forgot to mention the shop’s connection to Twilight in our previous post and once we remembered we went all newscaster-y and wanted to post about it right away. We’re such hypocrites…

Anyway, here’s the story: We sell jewelry by designers Taya and Silvija Koschnick, also known as Tasi. Tasi jewelry is worn by both vampire and human characters in the movie. Once we made the connection we realized wearing some of this lovely jewelry is a much more subtle (and considerably less embarassing) way to show our love for Twilight than wearing our “Edward and Bella Forever” t-shirt. Wouldn’t you agree?

The following is a totally lame excuse but it is 100% true. Made all the more embarrassing seeing that we’re solidly planted in our 30′s…

Perhaps you’ve noticed that we’ve had a really hard time keeping up with our blog the last couple of weeks. Honestly, we’ve had a hard time keeping up with everything. Except reading those tweeny Twilight books. (Don’t act like you’ve never heard of them.) We usually like to write about what we’ve been up to in the shop but we have literally been incapacitated by these books. We’ve neglected the shop and we admit it. We read about 2500 pages over the course of 8 days. We barely ate, we were despondent at work, and got very, very little sleep. What sleep we did get was riddled with dreamy images of what we had read. Damn. Those books messed us up.

Stupid vampire love story.

But what can we say? We are suckers for angst-filled, star-crossed teenage love. (See our previous post about Gossip Girl for further proof.) When we thought about our Favorite Finds section, if we were going to be truthful, these books had to be mentioned. They are seriously one of our favorite, Favorite Finds ever. We read all four books, bought the DVD and watched every deleted scene along with the 7-part documentary. Now it’s over and we’re kinda sad.  So if you are a die-hard Twilight fan, over the age of 30 and not afraid to admit it, come on by the shop.  We’ll gladly discuss the intricacies of vampire-human love in the Pacific Northwest with you.

When we opened the shop, we always intended to carry jewelry by local artists. A few have come and gone in our two + years, but we take great pride in the fact that most of our designers are permanent. As we’ve curated our jewelry collection, we’ve tried to find true art and true artists. Take a peek below at our current collections. We think you’ll agree, each utilizes a different medium to create equally beautiful pieces.

TQB Designs

I was lucky enough to cross paths with Lisa of TQB before the shop opened and before she became overwhelmed by shops asking to carry her work. We still can’t believe she has the patience to actually stitch together all those beads! We are constantly amazed by her work and are proud to be only one of a few shops that she chooses to work with.

Kiersten Crowley

We always tell customers that if you like one of Kiersten’s pieces, that you should snap it up quick because you’ll never know if she’ll reproduce it. As her whims change so do her designs. The result is an ever changing collection that always has her distinct simplistic style.

Sword + Fern

The one piece that ties all of Sword + Fern’s designs together is a steel car part. Cool. Who knew the auto shop could be such a source of inspiration? We love to layer these pieces and mix them with other collections. They just seem to go with everything!

Modica Design

We’re often amazed at the level of craftsmanship that goes into a single piece of jewelry. We see each of Modica’s designs as teeny tiny carpentry pieces. Hand-cut and sanded and then filled with custom tinted resin, they remind us of little stained-glass windows. Perfect for the spring sunshine.

Tasi

Sisters Taya and Silvija are the dynamic duo behind these ecclectic designs. They grew up in Ohio (like us!) in their mom’s vintage/bead shop where they learned all the tricks of their trade. The best thing about Tasi jewelry is that you could collect it for years and never feel like you have too much of the same thing.

Paper Treasure

This line is the newest addition to our shop. We received a piece of it for Christmas and knew it was something we wanted to share with everyone. Her necklaces are the perfect marriage of vintage baubles, lockets and pretty chain. You want to know what’s even better? She names each of her pieces after a historical shipwreck. What’s not to love?