whales...

...are migrating into o'suz. what, whales you ask? well, i'll tell you. when jessica and i were in new york we fell hard for the whales in the jonathan adler booth. we just had to have them...and now we do. they finally came today!!!!

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.

super duper supermaggie!!!

you may or may not remember, back in the day, when we carried supermaggie!
no mind, either way, as a new shipment of her wears has just arrived to remind us all of her talent. hot off the presses, these are a few styles we have in the shop, waiting and ready to be snatched up!

there is also a most lovely octopus onesie for wee ones.

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!

freshening up for fall.

we hope you like our new look -- thanks to jen for whipping up our new blog attire!

lots of good things happening in the o'suz-osphere, and stay tuned for our september love it post tomorrow!

ohh la la....best of

i never did a post about our local winnings did i? silly me.... well let me quickly tell those of you who don't already know that "we won some local accolades"!! the cville paper and their reader voted us BEST DOWNTOWN SHOP and BEST PLACE TO BUY A LAST MINUTE GIFT!! check it out! yeah!!!!!! and they had a BIG party...and we all went. todd and i even made a date night of it! first we went to our favorite eatery on this planet, continental divide, (our 2nd favorite is tortugas, in nagshead, nc) and had the yummiest meal with a side of 2 top shelf magaritas. great start to a fun night out. after jessica met us at the divide we made our way to the cville party and met up with aaron and moriah.

to make a long night seem short here are a few pics:

ok, todd, where did u get that ring pray tell?
and a shout of congrats to my dear friend jocelyn
at finch on her fabu winnings!!!

the girls, aaron and jessica with my surly husband
(need i mention he just "loves" how often i take his pic)
note the donut cart though, crazy!

the photo booth was a blast,
great idea cville! thank god they are tiny pics though...

here is where it starts getting fuzzy for me.
what fun though...

there were roller derby girls, sad to say this is not my best photo.
let's just say they were moving fast!!
(or could it be that wine they were pouring)?

last but not at all least, i want to say congrats to my husband who did not know that night that he had won runner up BEST electrician!!!
http://tinyurl.com/l9a4ng

new york new york

jacob javits

so jessica and i just returned from ny where we found so much new stuff, despite those grim predictions swirling around in the world of retail. lots of regular vendors and artists chose not to be there but lots came!

here is a quick list of some of the usual suspects from a to z:

archipelago
beba bean
beehive
bob's your uncle
bla bla see below
figs and ginger
fluffyco
funktion
gauge
hobo see below
highway
laurel denise
lucid
modern twist
polli
sukie
shinzi katoh see below
tokyo milk

just some of the new goodies:
graf & lantz see below
jonathan adler see below
lucky wang
mark poulin
megan auman
supermaggie

yak mountain looms

this is just a shot of the german felty line booth we got.
he sells coaster sets, oranaments, wall pockets and more.

some of the new colors for fall from hobo

jessica's dream bag which will be on order shortly for her
from hobo, question is black or brown?

crazy jumbo bla bla doll

that's jonathon adler live and in person,
in the green ,we bought a bunch of his ceramics!!!
so excited, wait til u see them!

this is shinzi katoh, isn't he cute?
he was so happy to be photographed!!!

my favorite restaurant in ny, rocking horse cafe:

8th ave btwn 19th and 20th

this is post 2 yummy frozen margaritas and a long day at the show

the crazy strange chandelier at the paramount where we stayed.

shipments are already in route so drop in and see us as we fill up for fall. and don't forget all the accessories jessica ordered a few weeks back. stay tuned for a quick post about those and still waiting on photos from 2 of our stationary winners......
when those are in, i will do a write up on their glee!!!
xo suz

stay tuned for more raffle coverage but until then:

check out these snaps of the new fancy rearrange. the shop feels so fresh and roomy thanks to all the girls: aaron, jessica and jen. aaron went to ikea and hauled back this beast and jen and jessica took on the daunting task of putting it together. completed, it weighs 300 lbs!

okay the pictures don't do the beautiful changes justice. come see in person if u can.