The Sweet Spot-Elva Fields Jewelry

Anyone who knows me knows I love accessories. Always have. I remember haggling on the streets of Germany to get one of my favorite necklaces one summer. I had seven holes in my ears by the time I was 15. In high school I did a whole studio portrait session featuring my extensive collection of hats, and to this day I kick myself for having gotten rid of those gorgeous things. So anyway. Accessories. Love 'em.So imagine my delight when I was first introduced to Elva Fields. These baubles are so decadent, such strong statement pieces that I can hardly stand it. So bold. Forget wearing red to stand out, just throw on one of these necklaces and you'll take any room by storm.Now imagine my even deeper delight when I found out the designer is my hometown friend Emily Maynard. I've known Emily since I was probably 10. I had a major crush on her older brother Matt. My senior year I picked Emily and her brother Micah up for school. And now she is all grown up and WOWZA is she doing some great stuff.

Since pieces from Elva Fields will soon be in Atlanta's Luna location, I thought it appropriate to interview her for the Sweet Spot, and she graciously agreed.

Lindsay: Emily, you and I went to high school together in a very small town that wasn't, ahem, the most stylish. Where did your eye for jewelry come from?

Emily: So diplomatic, Lindsay, and yet so true. It's funny--most of my retail buyers (upon finding out I'm from Kentucky) are surprised I have teeth and shoes, let alone stylish jewelry to offer, so this comes up more than I thought it might. Although I grew up coveting my great-grandmother's and grandmother's jewels, I don't think my "eye" for it was truly honed until my first year of graduate school in New York studying decorative art history (yes...you can actually earn a degree in this.) We were required to take a two-semester survey course that covered all decorative arts--from silver and ceramics to textiles, furniture, and jewelry--from ancient to modern periods. After studying for the first exam, I realized the only slides (of the hundreds we were shown) I remembered from the lectures were of jewelry. From then on, I took every available course offered on jewelry history (even attending classes across town at another institution), checked out every museum collection or exhibition involving jewelry, attended sales of vintage and antique jewelry at fine auction houses, and visited department stores, galleries, and boutiques to see the latest jewelry designs and trends. For me, the visual cultivation of style was most important, but I suppose the interest has been there all along somehow, just waiting to find an outlet.

Lindsay: I'm so glad it did! You named your company and your lines after important women in your life. Tell me about them.

Emily: Ooh...get comfy. I could go on and on...but I'll be brief since I love my Elva, June, and Deb more than your readers probably do. Elva Fields was my great-grandmother (we called her Mimi) and she was an amazing woman. Incredibly determined--decided to move to a new house with her young children while her husband was out of town on business one time--and very independent--tended her roses and lived on her own until she was almost 90. She set up funds for all of her great-grandchildren to go to the college of their choice, and for that I am eternally and steadfastly grateful. I certainly would not be doing what I love without the education that led me to it, so the business is named for her.

June is my grandmother (Nana) and is one of the most fantastic women I know. She is funny, generous, polite, supportive, stylish, and very social--she is busier at 87 than I am at 30 and loves to dress the part. My daughter is also named for her (Nana's full name is Viva June) so I love that we're able to have four generations together at dinner sometimes.

Deb is my mom, and I think most everyone who knows her would agree that I have one of the coolest moms on the planet. She is vastly talented...paints, cooks, gardens, designs, decorates, sculpts, draws, sews...the list is endless. In fact, I don't think there is anything she can't do...except maybe make it through airport security without getting screened now that she has two new hips. She is the most thoughtful, caring person I know--kind to friends, family, strangers, animals, and the earth and always leaves each of these better than she found them.

Lindsay: Ah, Deb. Love her. You clearly have some inspiring people in your life. What else is inspiring you right now?

Emily: A random list of inspirations: working mothers, Ernst Haeckel's "Art Forms in Nature" (a gift from my older brother), the arrival of spring, antique shops, brightly-colored enamels, Viva's smile, flipping through Vogue and Harper's Bazaar magazines, my local NPR station WFPK (the best music), my little brother's parenting, yellow gold wire, Juicy Juice and sparkling water, fresh flowers around the house, art collectors Dorothy and Herbert Vogel, the encouragement of friends near and far.

emily in her studio just before baby viva made her grand entrance into the world. picture courtesy brenda brooks.

Lindsay: You mention working mothers, and rightly so--you just had a baby. I found pregnancy & motherhood really stoked my creative fires. How has that affected you?

Emily: Besides the sleep deprivation, spit-up stains on most of my clothes, and the new little girl who now lives with us full-time? Oh! You mean creatively. I feel like being a new mother (or any mother at all, I imagine) is so wholly consuming that somehow it simultaneously sparks a desire to have something of your own that is completely separate from this new role you've taken on. Does that make sense without sounding super-selfish? My time in the studio spent creating is so much more precious to me now that I have less of it, so I am fully absorbed in my work for those moments when I know Viva is sleeping or content on her play mat on the studio floor. I definitely find I am much more excited to be designing and making jewelry than ever, simply because it's more of a luxury to find the time to do it. Also...I have the tiniest but most thrilling thought in the back of my mind that one day--maybe--Viva will want to be a part of Elva Fields, and that gets those creative flames burning like crazy!

that sweet head would inspire me, too.

Lindsay: Awesome! Okay, it's a Saturday...what are the Maynards up to?

Emily: We've never had a real weekend ritual--our schedule changes all the time with heading out of town or sticking close to home--but I'd say, if we're not away, it's a good bet that we'd start off the day with a little family time in the bed...not really sleeping in, but not wanting to get rarin' to go just yet, either. We pile under the covers with our two dogs, Ann (a 9-year-old black lab) and Jane (a 2-year-old German Shorthaired Pointer), and Viva. Then maybe a good eggs and bacon breakfast, some music, some house cleaning, a bit of work in the yard (we live in the sticks by a creek, so there's always some sort of maintenance), and definitely a few hours of jewelry making in the studio upstairs. If the weather is nice, we usually try to head out for a long hike in the woods...and then back home to work on a delicious dinner for the night. After a few rounds of cards (Gin is our favorite) we'll end up watching a movie from the Red Box down the road until Viva's last meal at 11. Probably incredibly boring to some, but that's our pace around here.

Lindsay: Elva Fields clearly has a commitment to eco-friendly practices that I love. Why is that so important?

Emily: I really don't want to sound preachy or crazy or holier-than-thou, but I do feel strongly that business of all shapes and sizes have a responsibility to do what they can for the world around them. Whether it's printing on both sides of the paper, operating out of a LEED-certified facility, or making a donation to offset your carbon usage, there are myriad ways to make a difference in the impact we have on our environment. With Elva Fields, it just seemed to be a natural (and incredibly easy) transition to create a line of jewelry using entirely vintage and antique materials--the original lines already incorporated repurposed jewelry, so this was just taking that idea a few steps further to embrace a more complete "green" attitude. Besides, I love the vintage pieces--there are so many great jewelry components that either end up in a landfill or wasting away in a forgotten jewelry box, and it is so much fun to give them a new life and a new story to tell. The fact that it helps the environment is just a great bonus.

Lindsay: Isn't it nice that vintage is so in, right when people are really embracing the green concept in every aspect of their lives? Okay, last question...what's on your kitchen table right now?
Emily: Totally caught me off guard with this question, and I'm a terrible liar. I'd love to say a home-cooked gourmet dinner for my husband, but actually, the kitchen table is used more as a pile distribution center (there is a method to my madness--very neatly arranged piles!) than for dining...so we've got a booklet on organic vegetable gardening from a class we just attended this week at our local county extension office, an article on a local cheese maker I pulled for my locavore mom to read, a stack of VERY belated thank-you notes for baby gifts, five mis-matched candlesticks, our tax forms to be signed and sent in, Viva's fleece hat, and, most important of all, her spare pacifier. And a hardly-noticeable layer of dust since we cleaned for the in-laws last weekend.

Lindsay: Thanks for being our sweet spot, Emily! I can't wait to visit Luna and see all your latest pieces in person!