TribeBlog

We tweaked the front page a little bit the other day. The two biggest visual changes were the addition of our new newsletter module and our FaceBook page button, both in a new column on the right side. We also made the new products section a little larger and removed the large random image at the top to cut down on load time.

The newsletter is now being managed by a third party service (not the writing, just the subscribe/unsubscribe capabilities) so it is no longer attached to your customer account. You can sign up for the newsletter without being a customer and unsubscribe at any time by clicking on the link in the message itself, instead of logging into your account to change it.

Something else we changed is our little mission statement on the front page. We added some wording we thought was necessary to reflect the direction we have been taking Onetribe over the past several years. It now reads (with the addition in bold) “We are an eco-friendly, socially responsible artisan jewelry company specializing in small run & one of a kind natural jewelry for individuals with traditional stretched ear lobe, lip and other perforations.” We frequently get asked why we don’t have this or that, when we’re going to “get” something or why we didn’t make ‘x’ size. Well, it’s because we make virtually everything on the site one piece at a time with our own hands and we don’t carry a huge stock.

We work small runs of material into jewelry – it may be one stone or 25lbs, one specific piece of wood, a limited edition design. All of the materials we work are finite in their existence, and each is unique – we feel those characteristics lend themselves to a less mass produced method of creating jewelry where we are able to pay more attention to each piece and be more selective about what we make. There are some styles that we continue to reproduce because they’re popular, and let’s face it, we’ve got to pay the bills. But we are also very focused on keeping things unique and interesting, and we have been doing more smaller runs of neat items, exclusive designs where we only make one run, and sometimes completely unique one-offs. And of course much of our custom work is 100% one-off as well.

Pondering New Products

We are working on some new products to release before the holiday season, namely some items for those without stretched lobes. Regular sized earrings, and some nice pendants. Technically some of it is outside of the scope of what we say we do here (although let’s be honest, we’re artists, not “plug makers,” we do what we want!), but we are going to be utilizing all of our waste/scraps/seconds and broken pieces and turning them into things people can wear. Really like that hanging style but can’t wear it in your ears? How about a pendant? Love that stone? We can make earrings from it. Gift for mom or the girlfriend? We can do that, and I think we should, especially if it means we’re continuing our mission of utilizing materials to create as little waste as possible. Our focus is piercings but I don’t think we have to discriminate against who we decorate if everyone gains in the end, do you?

We hope everyone had a great labor day weekend. We were closed Monday (postal holiday) but were right back at it Tuesday morning. So far this week we’ve made a couple of interesting sets of jewelry of note. The first is a set of really pretty 1″ Rutilated Quartz plugs – custom width and domed faces/flat backs. Tons of super fine rutile that just glows like strands of gold in the nearly crystal clear quartz.

This set is one of the several sets I am working on from this material, which we acquired a while back. See this blog post for an explanation of what these golden strands are.

The other particularly rad set of jewelry I photographed prior to shipment was this set of wild 1.5″ green fluorite plugs with tons of inclusions and hints of clear and purple fluorite throughout as well. For some reason the exact shade of green was virtually impossible to convey via the camera, even in natural daylight, so the color is a little bit muted. But you get the idea! Definitely one of the more unique sets of jewelry we’ve sent out in terms of color and pattern.

We should have a restock of many horn and bone items to throw up on the site here very soon, as well as some possible pre-made stone stock. Keep your eyes peeled over the next two weeks!

Every now and then we get in photos of customers wearing our wares and it’s great to be able to put a face to the name and see how the jewelry we make for people compliments their style. Here’s a few recent shots:

First off we’ve got our organic ninja friend Scott who recently relocated to New Zealand from Chicago. A great piercer and collector of beautiful jewelry, Scott wanted to show us the Onetribe love sporting his shirt and 2 5/8″ Tri-Tone Narra Burl plugs we made for him a while back while he’s rocking the organic draught brewski.

Abraham sends us a shot of him wearing his very, very custom eight piece hand carved blue jade Mayan earlets, while looking mighty fresh we might add.

Hannah Rose sends us her shots of the 4mm Obsidian Mayan flared plugs we made for her a few weeks ago. Note the wonderful translucency of the flare in the close up. She writes:

“I recently received a beautiful custom order – 6g single flare, Mayan flare in obsidian – and saw your request for customer photos, so I thought I’d send some in. Thanks for the amazing jewelry! Your site is what inspired me to stretch my ears in the first place, and it’s such an honor to wear your beautiful creations.”

Thank you for giving us the opportunity!

Michelle sends shots of many of the custom pieces we’ve had the pleasure of making for her over the past year. She writes:

“I just want to tell you how much I love all my custom plugs! I thought you’d like to see them on me. Thanks again and I look forward to more wonderful adornments!”

The first is a lovely set of Mayan flared blue jadeite concave plugs, 10mm I believe.

The next set is moose antler with amber cabochons set in silver.

A really gorgeous set of streaked labradorite pieces with blue/green flash depending on the angle.

A set of 10mm crystal clear Chiapas amber Mayan flared plugs.

Our customer Morgan wrote to us after wearing the custom jewelry we made for her in her mom’s wedding. They are teardrop shaped Narra burl plugs with very blue flashy labradorite cabochons set in silver. Evidently even her grandmother loved them!

Erin sent us photographs of her wearing the very beautiful Mayan flared Larimar plugs we made. As far as we and many of our friends know this was the first time this material has been used in body jewelry, so these are way special.

Taylor send us a few shots of the labradorite plugs we made for him blowing up the camera’s spot. In the first shot you can see all of the sparkly awesome coming into view – I distinctly remember making these pieces and loving that effect. If they were tilted slightly more downward, the faces would be bright blue. You can see the glow fighting to get out. The second photo shows the flash becoming so bright on one side that it’s blown out in the photo.

Last but certainly not least, we’ve got Chris and Nicole, both sporting very flashy labradorite we had the pleasure of making recently. The large set is one of my favorites for all of the immense character in the pieces, and is about 1 1/6″. The smaller set had a ton of beautiful aqua flash and was 7/16″ with slightly larger faces.

If you have action shots of you wearing Onetribe jewelry, custom or otherwise, please send them in! We’re working on getting a true photo gallery together, and we could use your help

These are beautiful. Simple, elegant, and all of those other adjectives. These pieces were a blast to make and turned out amazing. These are Narra burl Mayan flared tunnels at 1 3/16″ with 1 5/8″ faces inset with virtually clear Chiapas amber cabochons set in 20k gold.

There is no adhesive, no screws, nothing at all that can fail or come loose. They will not become dislodged unless the entire piece is physically destroyed. This is what we are working toward for all custom pieces featuring inlays of other materials, be they solid or hollow, wood or stone.

And speaking of stone, we’ve just completed a set of stone set in silver set in stone using this same method. We’ve created a slightly Mayan flared Ivoryite hollow tunnel set with lovely blue-green jadeite cabochons that have the most wonderful color when lit from behind.

We can set pretty much any wood or stone into any other wood or stone, with just a few exceptions in terms of what can be used for what (we could use fluorite for cabs, for example, but not to set something else inside of because it’s too fragile). The metal choices for bezels at the moment are high carat gold, silver, copper and brass, all with any number of finishes available – stress, matte, high polish – it’s YOUR jewelry, you make the call   If you have any ideas, definitely let us know. We’re happy to get complicated if you want something truly unique, it all comes down to time.

Been chugging right along with lots of custom stuff. This week obsidian seems to be very popular, both plugs and labrets. I can certainly see why, it’s a wonderful material. Also had a couple of great local custom orders, which are always super fun to do. It’s kind of a bummer that we don’t get to see most of the jewelry we send out being worn. If you have any of our stuff, send us photos!

First off we’ve got a nice set of four petal flower plugs carved from jadeite with black tourmaline inclusions. These were for a Virginia customer that has been driving over an hour to come visit us for custom work. He wanted Mayan style semi-square flowers and I was happy to oblige!

We recently finished up a beautiful set of petrified wood stone rings that turned out beautiful. They are ‘opalized wood,’ 3/4″ in size. My favorite petrified wood is that with growth rings and grain in it, so these certainly do it for me.

A set of very small obsidian pieces at 6ga, single flared with large faces. Beautiful translucency in these.

A set of very nice 1.5″ mahogany obsidian pieces, ordered on the site with a custom width request (5/8″).

A very pretty silver sheen obsidian oval labret, 1/2″ in size if I remember correctly

Here’s a 1″ Amazonite labret. Gorgeous piece.

And a smaller one, this time oval.

I’m sure there’s more I meant to post but it’s late and I’m tired and I can’t remember.. Haha. Anyway, we are having a cookout tomorrow at Onetribe, 403 Stockton St. Richmond, VA 23224. Come eat some grub (carnivore and herbivore fare provided), see the showroom and hang out with some chill folks. 5pm-9pm.

Been super busy this week making custom work every day. Mostly stone stuff. We’ve got a few really amazing projects in the works for multi-material items with stones set in bezels in other materials. I’m really excited about several of them.

Been making a ton of obsidian items this week, and plenty more to do tomorrow as well. Here are a few examples. The first is a really beautiful set of rainbow obsidian pieces in 9mm. They have a wonderful green and purple flash. Don’t mind the stone dust!

Next up a couple of larger sets.. some 5/8″ pieces with a slightly larger than usual front flare and domed face. These pieces were made on the spot while the customer, a regular at our studio, hung out and watched.

A larger set at 1 5/16″ with some beautiful gold sheen hiding in the faces.

I squeezed some amber in today, one piece in particular I was pretty stoked on simple because it’s something we don’t do often. 2g Chiapas amber septum tusk, 1.5″ in length.

The second amber set is TINY. 6g Mayan flared amber plugs! Beautiful swirly red details in otherwise clean and clear pieces.

I managed to squeeze out two sets of the beautiful green fluorite over the past few days. The first set shown is a custom order, and the second set is available. Both are 1″.

If you are interested in the set below (1″/ 25.4mm) please shoot us an email.

Last up I’ve got a really beautiful lip piece in 9mm x 24mm size from a jade we don’t let go of often. The ’sapphire’ blue Guatemalan jadeite from the Motagua river valley. This material is a beautiful blue-green color with marvelous translucency. To give you an idea of how tough jadeite really is, I cut and polished a 1mm thick slice off the back of this lip piece while I was making it. I also took a macro photo of the slice so you can see what the crystal structure and color of a material like this looks like.

You can see in the macro shot that the jadeite is primarily white to clear with tiny specks of blue and green, which are other mineral inclusions. Jadeite in it’s pure form is colorless and it’s the included mineral compounds which create the color. At this thickness it’s so translucent you can read the newspaper through it. There are not many other stones that you could hand work to this extent and still have one piece and not tiny fragments.

That’s all I got for ya right now in terms of the daily dose of eyecandy. There’ll be more soon. In the mean time, enjoy