jewelry by jen goff of paper wings

Paper wings, all torn and bent
But you made me feel like they were heaven sent
Paper wings, not real at all
But they took me high enough to really fall
Your paper kisses, faded too soon
Just like a paper rose, beneath a paper moon
Paper wings, paper wings

Oh how could I expect to fly with only paper wings

lyrics by gillian welch

handmade in vancouver: pyrrha

our new shipment arrives saturday!!!!(just in the nick of time, eh?)
if you would like to get an in stock pyrhha piece for someone special,
please mention this post and we will gladly take 25% off thru monday.

Wax Seal Necklaces

All Pyrrha wax seal necklaces, pendants and charms are cast in reclaimed sterling silver or bronze from 19th century wax seals. Each of these unique pieces of wax seal jewelry feature insignia rich with meaning culled from heraldry.

new pieces from polli!

we always love seeing what our australian pals at polli come up with, and we just received a shipment of some new pieces in the shop. come see!

this cute little whale is happily swimming along in the sea.

tess and maja have also started incorporating more buildings

into their work, and this townhouse is based

on the architecture of amsterdam.

these lotus earrings are composed of two separate pieces

and look lovely when they move.

molly m jewelry designs

molly mcgrath is the face behind one of our favorite jewelry lines, molly m designs. molly uses the laser cutting skills she learned in architecture school to produce delicate and lovely pendants and earrings. and in case you needed another reason to love her work, they are usually made from sustainable materials like bamboo, veneer from responsibly farmed forests and recycled suede and felt! come see for yourself!

branch 1 necklace

wood circles earrings and necklace

wood moire earrings and necklace

pod necklace

pith earrings

vortex earrings and necklace

layered drops necklace

ushering in autumn

as we, at o'suz, usher in autumn, we also seem to be ushering in some new jewelry artisans with it. no better time, as we were ready for some fresh adornments at our counter! here are just 2 of many new lines awaiting your notice.
megan auman resides in Jonestown, Pennsylvania, where she maintains a studio making sculpture and jewelry. Her work explores the floral patterns found in textiles and decorative ironwork. megan employs a torch welding technique to create her steel jewelry and sculpture.

we also have some of her earirngs in the shop!!

pyrrha designs is based in vancouver where all their work is made. they take their name from the myth of pyrrha and deucalion, a story of 2 young lovers who are the sole survivors of a catastrophic flood. each seal expresses symbolic sentiment through the casting of authentic 19th century wax seals.

the bee seal says mon ami ("my friend" in french). bees are symbolic of wisdom.

the fidelity seal reads fidele en absence (french for "faithful in absence').

the leaf seal reads e ne change qu'on mourant (french for "i change only in death").

the wings and wheat seal is symbolic of protection (the wings) and the achievement of pnes hopes and dream (the wheat).

the carpe diem seal reads carpe diem which means sieze the day in latin.

lots more seal necklaces in the shop plus some of their stunning bracelets.

september love it...polli!

we discovered australian jewelry designers polli about two years ago, and we continue to be charmed by their amazingly intricate necklaces and earrings. the body of each piece is laser cut in stainless steel, which means it's strong, lightweight, and also stays nice and shiny no matter how much you wear it! (fyi, the hooks and chains are sterling silver.) we were first drawn to the line by their iconic elm necklace, pictured below, and in the past few seasons, they've introduced some more playful designs, like the cute little hoot owl. (you know how we feel about owls!) we love polli products, and not surprisingly, tess and maja are super awesome ladies -- they've increased our australian vocabulary significantly and also send painfully yummy chocolate candies in their shipments.

one of our best sellers, the succulents; new terrace earrings with two different houses, one of which is modeled on the house in which polli was born (see if you can find the tiny dog, alfie); new feather earrings (all en route as we speak!)

this was my first piece of polli, the canopy necklace, which you must come visit in order to see all the detail. after i'd had it for a few weeks i realized there were tiny birds! and what i thought was a curly-tailed monkey! i was later informed by tess that my 'monkey' was actually an australian possum, which as far as i'm concerned, makes this even more awesome. that's one of our favorite things about the designs, that they are so firmly rooted in the visual world around them, and that tess and maja are able to incorporate these tiny details of their environment into the works. speaking of the environment, polli was recently awarded the low CO2 rating by the carbon reduction institute, and they are working hard to be no CO2 by 2010. yay! maja and tess, who will be a new mama very, very soon, agreed to answer our usual questions. enjoy, and see you soon!

interior of polli studio

what were your first jobs and how did you end up working in jewelry design?

Maja and I both worked at Dinosaur Designs at various stages through school and university. It was an inspiring experience as we were exposed to many different facets of a design company who manufactured locally and exported worldwide. We met at university in 1999 studying Industrial Design. After graduating we started working for competing design consultancies and were faced with strict confidentiality on our work. Product design is a slow process with some products taking years in R&D. We yearned to design together again and to design something with a fast turnaround that we would use ourselves. So we started Polli, initially as a hobby, by designing and die cutting polypropylene baskets and bags. We soon recognised regular off cuts from this process and use these plastic discs to make simple jewellery. The jewellery took off and the bags discontinued. Soon we started to work with other materials like stainless steel and aluminium and Polli has grown from a weekend markets stall to an international business with distribution through Australasia, North America, the UK and Scandinavia.

what are your favorite pieces/groups/series in your work?

Everything new is exciting but we’re both big fans of the original mobiles made from Stainless Steel – they’re like a giant necklace hanging in your room and cast beautiful shadows when lit. We’re also thrilled with our new hand stitched collection of jewellery which allow us to add colour and texture to our classic stainless steel jewellery. Being able to experiment with different colour-ways is something that we don’t often get to do and it’s been surprisingly challenging.

polli mood boards

who or what inspires you?

Life, Travel and Nature are our main inspirations. We’ve been fortunate enough to travel to interesting places and to get to travel regularly with our work. The new woven range has drawn inspiration from a tapestry carpet with spans three generations from Maja’s family. This carpet was designed, the wool hand dyed and hand stitched in Denmark by Maja’s grandfather. The final stitch was done in Australia by Maja and her mum, Pia, and the piece hangs proudly in Maja’s Sydney apartment.

maja's three-generation family carpet

what three websites do you visit daily?

Design Sponge, The Sydney Morning Herald, Triple J Radio

describe your ideal sunday.

Tess - Sleeping in, waking to warm Sydney weather, walking my two dogs by the water, enjoying a home cooked meal with friends.

Maja – Start with a good espresso coffee, followed by a bike ride in the sunshine, a long lunch with friends and finish it off with an early night.

what do you see outside your studio windows?

Our studio is part of a converted ginger beer factory (this is a kind of natural soda, I actually think it’s an Australian thing, it was originally made in ceramic bottles). It uses a lot of recycled timber and each studio faces an internal courtyard. The doors / windows are so grand they’re as wide as a our studio and nearly two stories high so you can literarily open the front of the studio! At the rear of the studio we look onto leafy gum trees.

thank you, tess and maja!

tiny naturescapes by polli

we love our jewels around here, and we are always on the lookout for cool new lines to carry in the shop. about six months ago we picked up a new line of jewelry from australia called polli, and we are absolutely in love with these intricate organic shapes. we each have a set of earrings and a necklace, and it's hard not to snag more! the piece that first caught our attention was their iconic elm necklace:

i mean, holy moly, who wouldn't love this stunning tree?

or these earrings, a personal favorite, with little birds perched on the tree branches?

one of the coolest things about polli is that the shapes are etched from stainless steel, which allows for the high degree of detail and the incredible weightlessness of the work. (all of the chains and the earring hooks are sterling silver, fyi.) just this past week we got a new box of polli goodies, complete with a chocolately caramel australian treat that was a welcome delight on a thursday afternoon. i saw the new designs at the gift show in august (where they also hand out chocolatey caramel australian treats), and it was so exciting to get the new work in the shop. here are a few of our faves from the new additions:

this is a more compact and robust version of the popular succulent pendant. i love the way this piece evokes a lush, squishy-leaved plant but is also really light and delicate.

how lovely is this necklace, called magnolia? it's a little bit of a departure from polli's usual shapes and is so sweet with the two little birdies sitting side by side. when it comes to earrings, we couldn't resist these tiny saplings:

the only downside to this post is that even these photographs, graciously lent by polli, just can't do these babies justice, which means you'll just have to come check them out for yourself. you won't be disappointed, i promise. xoxo, jessica