WELCOME to Debby Arem Designs!
As an artist, I am a perfectionist and fascinated by detail, texture and color. I am constantly challenged by how I can combine these three elements into unique 'geekery' jewelry and accessories for the home and office that are sometimes whimsical or abstract, sometimes purely decorative and quite often functional.
Thank you for visiting our shop! I hope you will come back and visit often as we are always adding new items!
Remember, every time you buy a piece of jewelry or something for your home or office that has been made with recycled found objects, you keep something out of a landfill !

Twenty some years ago when we first created a business out of discarded circuit boards, nobody quite got it. In fact, many people thought we were a bit nuts. Recycling wasn't in vogue and ' repurposing ' wasn't even a word in the common vernacular.
Come to think of it, neither was ' upcycled ' or ' being green' .
I like to think that I take after my father who for as long as I can remember, would collect things that others threw out and then find a new use for them. He was always on the hunt for a newly discarded treasure. So seeing a circuit board for the first time and immediately being drawn to the beauty of the colors and patterns, it was perfectly natural for my thought process to go along the lines of " What can I create with this amazing piece of technology that was clearly designed for some other purpose? "

Back in 1992, there was no internet ( who could imagine 'online commerce' ?! ) so all our sales were done the old hard way - meeting in person with museum curators to show the Three Ring Circuit line ( our line was sold at the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum shop for instance ) , wholesaling to brick and mortar shops or having our own booth at a craft show.

We knew we were on to something when at our first craft show we sold out of all our recycled circuit board clipboards the first day. Rushing home we made another batch only to again sell out.

We now like to joke that the world finally caught up with us which we realize is a bit of an exaggeration, but we can still recall some of the odd comments tossed our way when Debby Arem Designs ( first established as Three Ring Circuits in 1992 ) was originally introduced to the marketplace. 'Being green' was even a movement and the whole concept of recycling throwaway objects into new ones was a very foreign concept to the majority of people.

What started as a creative whim , quickly grew into a full time business with product after product being added. We were very lucky that all the circuit boards we salvaged were originally created as prototypes for different companies so none had ever been 'stuffed' before and this made the cutting a bit easier but not by much. Just figuring out how to cut a large circuit board into a smaller size or shape was a feat in itself. Many bandaged fingers later, we finally figured it out.

Jewelry was the first item that I tried my hand at - creating earrings, brooches and then cufflinks and tie tacks .
Joel next thought of creating our large line of office products followed by home decor items that I created with my Fine Arts background to guide me .

There's really no end to what we can make since we spent a lot of time dumpster diving in 1992 and rescuing circuit boards before they were hauled off to a landfill.

Dumpster diving is an art in itself - picking and choosing circuit boards that spoke to us , visiting scrap metal facilities and once again foraging for treasure.

Various local department stores allow us to routinely peer into their dumpsters to retrieve clean bubble wrap that is about to be hauled off. It never ceases to amaze us how much perfectly good bubble wrap is tossed each day - during the holiday season, these dumpsters are usually overflowing with plastic.

As our business has evolved, we have never lost site of our goal - to create new products out of cast away circuit boards and do our little part to save the planet.
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►NEW YORK, March 15, 2011 - About.com announced that Debby Arem Designs was selected as the About.com 2011 Readers' Choice Award for Favorite Handmade Artisan: Geek Craft !. Now in its fourth year, the About.com Readers' Choice Awards honor the best products, features and services across more than a dozen categories, ranging from technology to hobbies to parenting and more, as selected by its readers. : ★:*¨¨*:☆:*¨¨*:★:¨

► The Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry has several of our PCB green office products on permanent exhibit as part of their Smart Home 2009 Exhibit! Sponsored by WIRED magazine, the home is a living space inspired by great architecture that is the meeting point of luxury, functionality and predictive automation. On the desk in the "Home Office" room are one of our pencil boxes, a circuit board clock, a mouse pad and several clipboards - all made from recycled circuit boards! This whole exhibit features all-new interior design and the latest technologies! The gift shop is also now carrying our products!**

We always welcome custom work ( time permitting ) so never hesitate to contact us.
◉ Check out our other Etsy shops -
1. http://EurekaEureka.etsy.com - A vintage supply shop featuring beads and gemstones from the 1940s- 1980s.

2. http://ForeverInStyle.etsy.com My own catalog of vintage Beaded Jewelry, including hand knotted necklaces, bracelets, earrings and fan pulls .

3. http://JoelAremCollection.etsy.com Joel's private mineral and gem collection, started in the 1950s, and now being made available to the public

◉ Debby's website - www.debbyarem.com
◉ Joel's website - www.joelarem.com
◉ My Flickr page : http://www.flickr.com/photos/debbyaremdesigns/

We are proud member of the Etsy Vintage Team and Team Ecoetsy.