Artfully Elegant — Handmade Jewelry & Handcrafted Gifts

The Chewbeads product line is made with 100% silicone. (similar to pacifiers and nipples). Every necklace, bracelet, rattle and teether is soft on babies gums and emerging teeth. None of the Chewbeads products contain BPA, phthalates, cadmium, lead, metals. They can be easily cleaned with dish soap and water, and they are also dishwasher safe. The necklaces have a breakaway clasp for added safety and are a great sensory tool to help babies focus while nursing.

“At Chewbeads, it’s a family affair. The idea began in 2009 after our son benjamin was born. Like most babies, he loved to put everything in his mouth and my necklaces were a favorite. Like most moms I didn’t feel comfortable letting him chew on them, with the concern they might break or have unwanted chemicals. As a veteran of the fashion industry I had an amazing collection of necklaces and bracelets and with those as my inspiration i set out to create soft, non-toxic jewelry that was colorful, chic, and above all else safe. Hence, chewbeads! As our family has grown we’ve been inspired to create safe, non-toxic teethers and toys that babies and parents can enjoy and feel good about.” – Chewbeads

Until the age of 10, Michelle Ciarlo-Hayes was certain the secret passage into Narnia truly existed and if she just rifled through enough closets, she would find it. Fables, fairy tales, and legends have always enchanted Michelle, her favorites being those where heroines like Lucy and Alice run off to have wild adventures. Graduate studies brought her to Oxford, where she would read in the same gardens that inspired C.S. Lewis and Lewis Carroll’s imaginations, and her whimsical, witty, and joyful artwork is still influenced by this idea of magical worlds that mingle with our own. Before becoming a full-time artist, Michelle was a librarian and spent her days surrounded by her very favorite thing: books. Irreparably damaged titles found a home in her studio and the idea for her art blocks was born. Many beautiful family heirlooms appear in her art and designs, which she creates by blending her collection of antique cameras and viewfinders with traditional film, digital collage, and painting.

Oré Originals has been creating a legacy of Happy Products for Good People and Pets™ since 1989. It all began in a small garage in Southern California… Lisa Lowe founded Oré Originals with a love for design and a passion for color, print, pattern and creating useful things. Growing up in a creative family, life has always been about visual ideas and making them real. Lisa’s California roots play a big role in the Oré esthetic – casual, colorful, sweet, but uncluttered, modern but classic. The result is a collection of functional items designed to brighten your day and help make life easy and fun. It is also why people around the country start their everyday with a cup of coffee using one of the Oré Originals Coffee Mugs. The styling that drives Oré’s collections today thrives on the same energy that started it all. A passion for creative use of materials, colorful print and pattern, and a big dream to make products that solve everyday problems… AND put a smile on your face. That was – and still is – what Oré is all about.

One day while Suzanne was working in a hip little shop, Don came in to show off his hand-crafted wooden bird toy, a project inspired by his work in theatre design. Don’s wooden birds were a hit among friends and family alike, and from then on he and Suzanne have worked together to create original decorative works to inspire and entertain. After one too many commutes in Vancouver, Don and Suzanne gave up city life and made the big move to Salt Spring Island where they love being a part of a creative and dynamic community. Everything Cedar Mountain produces is designed and manufactured in their own backyard studio by a talented team of nine people, two dogs and one cat. They continue to craft products for Cedar Mountain that they hope will make you stop, read, ponder and laugh.

The art of Fidel Garcia blends figurative realism and abstract expressionism. His paintings call upon the viewer to experience the concurrency of our corporeal and spiritual selves, the coincidence of reality and fantasy, and the simultaneous existence of the physical and metaphysical. Rather then simply asking for acknowledgement of these diametric forces, Garcia’s paintings assist us in finding the harmony and balance between them. Over the last two decades, Garcia’s unique artistic vision has gained recognition through out his native Mexico and in Spain resulting in numerous exhibitions, awards and museum placements including the National Museum of Spain, the Puebla Historical Museum and the Amparo Museum in Mexico. The introduction of Garcia’s work to the United States is drawing further recognition and attention to his artistic vision.

Hailing from Bedfordshire, England, Janet Treby strives for a connection between the physical and emotional. The diversity of Treby’s work is driven by her constant curiosity towards reality and fantasy, which she breathes through her craft. Janet Treby interest in science, art and spirituality is symbolized by countless varying styles and ideas that come together on the canvas sub-consciously and often spontaneously. This interconnectedness she strives to create, the emotional connection between all things, can be sensed in between the multiplicity of her technique.

Alexander Wissotzky are the combination of both Tanya Wissotzky and Alexander Galtchansky. They work in acrylic, pen, ink, and collage on specially treated canvas. In their still life paintings they incorporate references to the calligraphy of old English flower stunning collage details that celebrate painting manuals, and Paris in the Twenties. Their art is laced with nostalgia, romanticism, and vitality. Wissotzky and Alexander were both born in 1959, in Crimea of the former Soviet Union. Their collaborations began in the Kiev Institute of Arts were Wissotzky worked as a painter and Alexander as a book illustrator. After getting married and immigrating to Israel, the couple united their creative forces and began a lifelong artistic partnership. The work of Alexander and Wissotzky has received critical acclaim and enjoyed success in Israel, the United States, Sweden and Germany; it may be found in public and private collections all over the world.

Steve Bogdanoff began detailed drawings of people and scenes at the age of 6, and painting oil on canvas by age 10, which he continued through the late 1980s. In 1990, he became captivated by ancient art history. Steve found himself obsessing over archeological books, studying as many illustrations and as much text as possible. He began to experiment with painting on plaster in hopes to capture a wall mural effect similar to those in his studies, and proceeded to create his first fresco secco-style piece with much exhilaration. In January 2002, he opened Bogdanoff Gallery on Royal Street in the historic French Quarter section of New Orleans. In 2006, he relocated to Santa Fe, home to America’s third largest art market. Now many years after creating his first fresco piece, Steve is recognized internationally for his interpretive fresco secco paintings and giclee prints.

Since he sold his first watercolor at the age of thirteen to an American tourist who was visiting the Buffet family restaurant in Paris, that reality has included, among other things, landscapes of Polynesia, dreamscapes of Hawaii, several battalions of quirky French culinary workers, historical scenes of the French Revolution, and a few dour Scotsmen on wind-blasted moors unaccountably trying to play golf. His sublime sense of the burlesque is unparalleled and infectious. He has assembled countless one-man shows in literally every part of the globe and served as official artist for numerous advertising campaigns, including Champagne Perrier-Jouet, Absolut Vodka, Aloha Airlines, and the Tour De France.

Ginger Cook is best known for her original technique of building a medley of vibrant colors and varies layers of textual media. She intertwines the bold strokes of thick impasto with softly layered translucent washes. The use of natural stucco and the combination of multiple layers of different media present the viewer with a three dimensional work. Ms. Cook received national recognition in 1997 by winning four first place awards and overall Grand Prize winner of Liquitex ‘Paint a Difference’ competition. A collection of her work was subsequently exhibited by Liquitex at the National Academy of Design in New York City. The following year Utrecht paint featured her work as a Master Acrylics Artist with a full-page ad in Artist Magazine. Ms. Cook currently paints from her studios in Houston Texas. Cook was nominated for ‘Artist of the Year’ in 2003 by the Academy of Fine Arts Foundation and awarded the Academy of Fine Arts Foundation 2003 Presidential Order of Merit in recognition of significant contributions to the betterment of humanity through art, Ginger is held in high esteem by her colleagues and collectors.