Sometimes when the right toy comes along, you have to make up the game in order to play with it. That's the short story behind Bijoux Bee.

The long version is as follows:
I've been a glass artist for 12 years, and it continues to be my biggest gig. When the opportunity to do some etching on glass on a friend's laser engraving machine came along, I was hooked. Ideas started quickly expanding past just glass. Since I have always loved the richness and texture of wood, I started designing a few things, initially intending to merge it into my glass jewelry lines.

After making a few pairs of earrings for myself, and getting an awesomely alarming number of compliments on them, I realized that the wood designs had more potential that just acting as complements to my glass designs. For a little while, I sold our first pieces as extensions/ components of MZ Glass, but as time went on, it became clear to me that the wood designs really needed their own business.

Around that same time, Thomas and I started dating. He's one of those people that can see the whole picture quite easily, and after a short conversation about wanting to expand the wood product lines, Tom created the entire picture of Bijoux Bee: our business name, a logo, and the artwork that we use in our merchandising and advertising. That was just a year ago, in November of 2012, and we've both jumped into helping our small business grow.

Because Bijoux Bee started as a "side" business to my glass art, we have taken our time to do things RIGHT, to make smart decisions with regard to materials, design, and marketing. We do what we can to make earth-friendly choices in our life, so it was important to us to work hard to make Bijoux Bee as "green" as possible. We have deliberately chosen to utilize sustainably grown, renewable Alder wood as our primary material.

The mission of Bijoux Bee is simple: create awesome jewelry out of eco-friendly materials that our customers LOVE to wear. We want the pendant or earrings you purchase to be the piece of jewelry that CAN'T be left at home while you carve your own path in the world; that pair of earrings that seems to fetch an endless supply of compliments; that piece that fits with you; that makes you feel great about yourself, and about your choice to support artisan craft.

- MZ (Margaret, with Tom reading over her shoulder)