beachbites
Text to come
Wearable Art
Silver and Sand
by SHANNON RAE GENTRY
14
WBM may 2013
From the coasts of Canada to the beaches
of Belize, Holly Daniels Christensen
stores sand from more than 1,200
named beaches in her “sandbank,”
yet she has only been to about 200. Since 2010,
hundreds of people have sent tablespoons of sand to
Christensen’s Dune Jewelry in Boston, Massachusetts.
When she realized the deep emotional attachments
people have to their favorite beaches, Christensen
says she thought to convert beach sand into unique
earrings, pendants, rings and bracelets.
“People tend to refer to their special beach as ‘their
beach’ or ‘my beach,’” she says. “I’ve even gotten
sand from beaches where ashes were scattered …
or where husbands proposed years ago.”
There are two different patent-pending processes
involved in creating the jewelry. The first process
requires layering sand and resin to form a stone,
glass-like finish. The second process calls for
Christensen and two other jewelry artists to hand
sand the piece, inlaid into the silver for a flat finish
before the piece is polished.
After starting her business with about 100 orders,
Christensen noticed a reoccurring request for
Wrightsville Beach.
“Wrightsville sand is actually really interesting to
work with, because it has a lot of really fine quartz, then
it also has bits of shell,” she says. “So the consistency is
much different.”
With simple and clean designs like the sleek
earrings and matching necklace from the “Sandbar
Collection,” or classic oval pendants from the
“Sandrop Collection,” each jewelry collection’s name
reflects the same beach theme.
Christensen encourages anyone to send their own
sand. A portion of the proceeds, which range from
one to 30 percent, is donated to coastal preservation
programs like the Surfrider Foundation and other pro-grams
like Hope for Ariang, a village in South Sudan. Visit
www.dunejewelrydesign.com for more information.
Dune Jewelry stacker ring, earrings and pendants
from the Sandbar, Sandrop and Island collections.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALLISON POTTER