Spring is upon us here in Los Angeles, and the Elephant Heart team has been hard at work freshening up our look just in time for the new season.

We have redesigned our blog and added two videos in our “about the artist” section–but the blog is just the tip of the iceberg for us here at Elephant Heart–we also have a BRAND NEW WEBSITE!

After many months of hard work, I am thrilled to announce the launch of the new Elephant Heart website. The entire Elephant Heart team has been working tirelessly to make the complete Elephant Heart jewelry collection available to you through our elegant and easy to navigate website.

Not only have we expanded our site to include the entire Elephant Heart collection–over 120 hand-made pieces–but we have also created a special Custom Order page so we can customize any piece specifically for you.

Creating this new website has been an incredible experience for me as an artist, but more motivating for me as a team member.  This website exists only through the dedication and immeasurable talents of everyone at Elephant Heart.  Each person contributed invaluable insights and resources and this entire project has come to fruition through the collaboration of each individual’s efforts.

Thank you to EVERYONE!

Our new site will feature the entire Elephant Heart collection–126 beautiful pieces–designed and hand-made by yours truly!  If you can’t find exactly what you’re looking for in our collection, we have dedicated a special page to custom orders.

I’m excited to share what we’ve been working so hard to bring you–an intimate and tailored way for you to see everything Elephant Heart has to offer.

Please stay tuned–we’ll be announcing the site launch soon!

I worked with Susan to create a project for the participants that would address both the theme for the year (Shabbat–the Jewish day of rest) as well as allow for an interesting artistic experience.  I proposed the idea of making candle holders out of clay.  We would work with the clay during one session and then glaze the pieces during a second.

I have worked with students in a lot of different educational settings, but this was the first time I was going to work exclusively with special needs students.  I tried to anticipate the challenges I would be met with and how I would tailor a ceramics lesson to individuals who might not like the sensation of the clay in their hands or who I might not be able to interest in the project at all.  I was quite nervous.

I decided to address these potential obstacles by leaving the lesson plan open and flexible so as to be able to change the direction of the class quickly if need be.  After the first fifteen or twenty minutes of class, when my students became frustrated and distracted with the lack of structure, I realized this was a rookie mistake.

By the end of class the students had created some beautiful and expressive ceramic pieces, but I felt disappointed in my lesson plan and my inability to fully engage every participant.  I was eager to speak with Susan and utilize her experience and expertise to plan another approach for the next class.

Susan helped me understand how important structure and direction is to special needs individuals.  I had thought that giving the students more creative freedom would take the stress off making a specific object, but in fact the opposite was true.

When I worked with the group the next time, I had a very structured lesson plan and a few more helping hands to guide the students through the step by step lesson I had outlined.  The class was a great success.  I felt confident and I think the students felt more free to express themselves creatively within the structure I had given them.

My experience with OurSpace was incredibly educational and enlightening and I think that the students may have taught me more about education than any instructor I’ve had.

The sale took place in one of the huge sound stages on the Universal Studios Lot, where Desperate Housewives is filmed.  Felicity Huffman even stopped by during a break in the day to check out the boutique sale.  I had a wonderful time talking with crew members on the show and meeting fellow Desperate Housewives vendors.

I was seated across from a spritely and most imaginative craftswoman, Sara Jane.  She created fantastic hand-sewn coin purses and baby shoes out of felt.  I was totally captivated by her unique colors and patterns and expert craftsmanship.  You can find her creations on her website, www.sarajanesince1956.com, as well as on Etsy.com.

The day was a great success and I even made a new friend in the costume department of CSI….so stay tuned!

This offer is good for the entire month of December, so don’t miss your chance to save!

I’m excited to announce that Elephant Heart has just launched a new collection of jewelry for the holidays on our site, including a special SALE section featuring 10% OFF 10 of Elephant Heart’s most popular bracelets.

To show our holiday cheer and our appreciation for our customers, Elephant Heart is offering FREE SHIPPING on all items for the entire month of December.

There is a tradition in my family that I would like to uphold.  Before we commence with our Thanksgiving feast, we go around the table and say aloud what each of us is thankful for.  Some years we are distracted from this tradition by hunger and excitement, but I always take the time on Thanksgiving Day to think about what I have been most thankful for in the past year.  Every year my thoughts first turn to my health and that of my family, but this year, after moving myself and Elephant Heart to a new studio, I feel most thankful for the roof over my head and the freedom afforded to me–by living in this country–to create my own business.

This holiday I also thought about the roof over the heads of another family.  Several weeks ago I got together with a group of alums from my elementary school, The Center for Early Education, to do a Habitat for Humanity project.

We all met one Saturday morning–early–to put the finishing touches on a home being built for the Monroy family.  The Monroys are a family of three children and a single mother who have always dreamed of having a home of their own.  The two Monroy boys are autistic and require a lot of extra attention from their mother who is already stretched to provide for her family.

My job that Saturday was to clear and level the yard in preparation for landscaping.  The Monroys are particularly exited to have a yard so the children may play safely outside.

As I sat around the Thanksgiving table with my own family, I thought about the Monroys, who for the first time would be sitting around their Thanksgiving table under the shelter of their own roof.

The Montessori method is a style of child-centered education where the students are encouraged to follow their own interests.  Several children from the class had become interested in gemstones.  They organized a field trip to the Natural History Museum, where they gathered information on various stones, made sketches, and practiced identifying rock samples they had collected.

When I arrived on Friday, the students were excited to share the discoveries they had made and to pick my brain about the stones that had interested them the most.  I was more than impressed with their enthusiasm as well as  their ability to retain new information and ideas.  It was so exciting to work with students motivated by their own interests–I haven’t encountered that outside of a university.

I showed the students examples of the different gemstones I work with in my jewelry.  We talked about ways to classify a stone and how to identify it based on qualities such as hardness and opacity.  When we discussed the difference between transparency and translucency, the children were quick to tell me that one could use this information to determine the authenticity of a diamond.  A true diamond is translucent; whereas as an impostor is transparent.

I had a wonderful visit and am looking forward to returning to work with the students again.  The image below shows the children opening an amethyst geode for me.  I think I learned as much from them as they did from me!

For years I had used uniquely designed, elegant paper boxes.  Some customers would even go to the trouble to return the boxes to me once they had removed their jewelry, rather than throw them in the garbage.  I was grateful to these few customers for helping me conserve my resources and not adding more waste to the world, but I knew they were in the minority and that my boxes were still finding their way to the landfill.

With the switch from Elyse Jeanne to Elephant Heart, I decided to find a new way to present my jewelry.  I wanted to find a box that fit the handmade elegance of the Elephant Heart aesthetic as well as one that could also be functional once the jewelry was taken out of it.

I decided on wooden craft boxes, branded with the same Elephant Heart logo found on this blog!  I loved the simplicity of the craft box construction with its slide-lid top; I felt comfortable shipping the jewelry in a wooden box, knowing that no amount of transportation abuse would harm it; and most of all, I loved that the wooden box would be a useful keepsake for my customers.

The most exciting part of my search happened when Jamie, my incredible assistant, found the Nezinscot Guild out of Turner, Maine.

Not only does the Guild have a 30 year history of making finely crafted boxes, but the backbone of their business is a partnership with their community and the spirit of their workers.  The Nezinscot Guild hires and trains members of the Turner community with developmental disabilities.  Their hard work fosters self-confidence and enables these employees to earn wages that empower them as consumers and encourages them to be independent.

The Guild’s commitment to being a socially responsible business is an inspiration to me.  I am thrilled to support their enterprise and proud to present Elephant Heart Jewelry in such fine boxes.

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to add the Aussie Gold Necklace worn by Tyra Banks and the Moonrise Necklace (now also in a stunning red Agate) worn by Vanessa Williams to your Elephant Heart Collection!

The 50% Off Sale ends November 30th–visit www.elephantheart.com TODAY!