While Alex Dekowski closed her much-loved boutique, Hello Addie, in 2019, her passion for style didn’t diminish. It wasn’t long before she returned with a new venture, the jewelry brand House of Muse. Her gold-plated and gold-filled jewelry aims to answer that eternal question: How can one look like a million bucks without breaking the bank or sacrificing quality?

What inspired you to launch House of Muse?
In 2020, when we were all wearing lounge and staying indoors, I turned to jewelry to feel a little more put-together. As a consumer, I had a difficult time finding gold-colored costume jewelry that didn’t easily tarnish or change color. It sparked my interest enough to figure out a way to create a product that lasted a little longer.

I found a handful of brands that made waterproof claims; some of them held up, but the problem was the price point. From my background, I understood what the product cost these companies to make, so looking at their retail price bothered me. There’s totally a time and place for a high-ticket item, but mass-produced costume jewelry, in my opinion, is not it. I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel, but if the margin’s there, why not offer the product at a more accessible price point?

How has your vision as a boutique owner shifted since Hello Addie?
Boutique owner to product/brand owner is definitely very different. It’s funny, though: My end goal with Hello Addie was always to develop our own apparel line. I’m finally living out that dream, but just in a different product category. I totally missed the boutique world, though, which is why we recently launched The Boutique Shop under our brand. While we’re a year into our jewelry brand, the boutique is still new. We’re taking our time with that portion of the business by launching small, more curated collections for the time being.

If you had to wear one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?
That’s so hard. If we’re talking apparel, I have to go with a blazer. You can style it in so many ways, and it really makes every outfit (even denim and a T-shirt) feel a little more polished. If we’re talking jewelry, I’m going to say hoop earrings, hands down. They’ve probably been my most-worn jewelry item since I was a teenager and, given that our weightless hoops are our best-selling style, I’m guess- ing a lot of you feel similarly.

Inspired by history and her grandmother’s love of crystals, Rachel King created eco-friendly, all-natural, and ethically sourced crystal jewelry brand Eaarthbones. After studying photography in school, King transformed her self-taught hobby into a thriving online business with products now available in local retails like A Keeper’s Vintage. We sat down with King to talk about the inspiration behind her jewelry and the future of her Baltimore-based brand.

How did you come up with the name Eaarthbones?
So Eaarthbones is kind of a take on crystals being bones of our earth, of our world. The two a’s are from a book by Bill McKibben and it talks about how the earth is not what it used to be, but the earth that we have now we should definitely protect and cherish and treat with respect. That is a big pillar for Eaarthbones. I work with all ethically sourced materials, a lot of up-cycled materials, all vegan—so I really wanted all of my jewelry to be sustainable as well as beautiful.

Why did you choose to start an eco-friendly business?
There is so much waste already out there and there are so many things that we don’t even use as human beings that I didn’t want to contribute to it. I only wanted to enhance our knowledge of the earth. So the crystals definitely teach us about the earth and ourselves. I wanted the materials I used to go hand-in-hand with that.

How do you go about choosing the crystals for your jewelry?
I get all of my crystals from other small businesses that I know in the United States. Each step along that process is really important. I kind of devise a plan for the crystals that I want to use and the colors that are in season or that reflect my collection styles. Then I just make sure that they’re from different sources that I know they are ethically sourcing them.

What is your favorite thing about being an entrepreneur in Baltimore?
There’s so many people doing pretty much exactly what I’m doing, like working full-time plus being an entrepreneur plus having their business. Some months are slower than others and just everyone is so determined and willing to help each other.

What is your go-to jewelry piece?
I love wearing my Maura Hoops. I wear those pretty much every day. They’re super lightweight. The hoops I’ve been making since I started so they’re also near and dear to my heart.

How long does it typically take to make a piece of jewelry?
It depends on how many times I’ve made it before and how intricate it is. The intricate, wire-wrapped pieces, those could take up to two hours. There are some pieces I’ve been making for years, like hoops or rings, that really take me about five minutes. It’s really the practice of doing it over and over again—some of it has really becomes second-nature to me.

Where do you draw inspiration for your jewelry?
I make collections. Like last fall, I had the talisman collection, which is all very inspired by different cultures and talismans throughout history. I had a siren collection where each piece was named after a different mermaid throughout history. So a lot of history and mythology really inspires my work.

What does the future for Eaarthbones look like?
I would love to one day have my shop on wheels so I could move around. I don’t necessarily like the idea of a brick and mortar because I feel really tied down. I have a studio up in Cockeysville, so just making that more available for people to come and enjoy my work and making that my shop would be really cool.

I just dropped a spring collection, which was very inspired by the moon and the stars. So it was a lot of really big crystals, a lot of 14K and sterling silver wire. I’m hoping to my brand gets a little more upgraded with each collection.

The first thing that stands out about a piece of ISA NOY jewelry is its simplicity. Its clean lines and smooth texture are calming to the eye in a very pleasing way. And that’s the feeling creator Isabel Herrero wanted to embrace when she left her 9-to-5 job to start ISA NOY (a combination of her first name and her mother’s maiden name) two years ago.

“I call it ease,” says Herrero. “There is a feeling of relaxation and freedom that I want to portray—from the way I make pieces in my studio to the way we arrange the collection and set up photo shoots.”

Herrero, who was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, grew up watching her family collect one-of-a-kind jewelry from all around the world. “My family always cherished the history that jewelry brings,” she says. “It’s not about where it’s from but about what meaning it carries.”

As a girl, Herrero took classes in jewelry making, her hobby influenced by the prevalent hand-crafted culture of her homeland. After studying architecture at the University of Miami, Herrero worked at an architecture firm in Miami before meeting her life partner, which brought her to Baltimore. But it was her nostalgia for Puerto Rico that brought her back to jewelry making.

“Baltimore kind of drew this out of me. It’s an inspiring city full of young creatives and unique spaces,” says Herrero, who handcrafts every piece of jewelry herself and operates an e-commerce site out of her Clipper Mill studio. The website launched in 2017.

ISA NOY’s first line—“Rocks”—was inspired by Herrero’s childhood collection of rocks and the small treasures she would find in Puerto Rico while walking the beach. “Rocks are a symbol of grounding yourself,” says Herrero. “For me, it is a reminder to spend more time with yourself and to recharge. I think it’s kind of beautiful to share that message with people.”

Each rock used in ISA NOY’s collection is made to order, so not one is the same, and they are made with fine silver and gold. “The material is the most important to me, “she says. “No matter how simple an item is, if the materials used are high quality, it will stand out.”

Herrero’s future plans include releasing her “Rocks” collection in gold and debuting surprise holiday pieces. But perhaps her favorite part of the company is that her plans don’t have to be set in stone, so to speak. “With architecture, everything is so strict, everything has a deadline and a course of action,” says Herrero. “But ISA NOY is the space for me where there are no rules.”

Fashion is art, right? Or at least it can be. 

The students at MICA aim to demonstrate that fact at the school’s two annual fashion showcases—the Experimental Fashion Event (April 5 at St. John’s Church) and the Annual Benefit Fashion Show (April 11 at the Brown Center). 

The shows will feature wearable art from the school’s fiber, graphic design, illustration, and sculpture students, as well as jewelry from continuing study students at the MICA Jewelry Center at Meadow Mills. 

The students were encouraged to push the boundaries of everyday fashion—creating eye-popping, one-of-a-kind works. 

More information and tickets are available at the MICA store, 1200 W. Mt. Royal Ave. and at store.mica.edu. For more information visit mica.edu/fashion.

Within months of launching their jewelry-making business, Baltimore
born-and-raised sisters Jill Becker, left, and Jenny Benscher, right,
have already expanded it across the country.

Lema J Design is a
line of bracelets (mostly cuffs)—sold locally in stores like Treasure
House Accessories, Alice Jane, and Ruth Shaw, and stores in California,
New York, and Florida—made from shagreen leather (aka stingray skin).

“I
love the texture, pattern, and inherent beauty,” says Benscher, who
handcrafts the jewelry in her Orlando, FL, home studio, of the unique
material. Lema J Design is unique in its story, too. Becker (who splits
time between Baltimore and Florida) lost her daughter, Cara, to leukemia
in 2012.

Shortly after, Benscher made her sister an orange cuff
emblazoned with a protective eye. “I wanted her to know and feel that I
was always with her,” Benscher says.

After many people
complimented Becker’s one-of-a-kind bracelet, the two partnered as
vendors at a fundraiser. Their stock sold out in three hours, prompting
them to start a business.

Since then, the collection has grown to
offer various styles priced from $88 to $660, with a portion of all
proceeds benefitting the Karma for Cara Foundation, founded by Cara
shortly before her death. Each bracelet is marked with a signature red
dot.

“It represents the holes in our lives that we fill with love, empowerment, motion, and adventure,” Becker says.