Our Studio Crew

We've been busy with orders for Father's Day and retailers getting ready to open for summer...so we're hard at work in the studio. Jen, pictured front left, has joined us to assist with various tasks in making the jewelry. John, center, has jumped in to help out with the cleaning and polishing. Val, top right, is busy keeping up with John to clean and polish. Charlotte is busy on the computer designing your orders!

If you're wondering, we're taking orders for Father's Day through June 5th. Don't forget about Dad on June 20th!

Whirlwind of Activity

Well hi all, how are you?

It's been a bit since we've hit the blog and I apologize for that, but we've been out straight. If your asking why, check out that last post of ours from February, 17th... OMG, it's been 2 months... man that flew by! So anyway, the last blog I'm referring to is the Coastal Living feature, yup our first bit of National Press. It was great and brought us to another level and we're just now coming up for air!

Amongst all the orders, here's what else we've been up to in the mean time.

In March we attended our first wholesale trade show ever, The New England Products Trade Show! We had a great show opening 9 new accounts across New England... more info to come on them soon! We also won a Best New Product honorable mention for our belt buckle.

We established a connection in the great lakes to assist in opening accounts there! So far we have two new Great Lakes locations. Look for us in The Boardwalk and The Lobster Trap in Put-In-Bay and Rudder's in Catawba Ohio. Look for more Great Lakes locations soon.

We were featured in a great piece in the Portland Press Herald's Sunday Telegram over Easter. Check out our story, Keyes: Charting a course in business, life from the audience section.

We were also featured in the Bold As Love blog. The author, a recent customer, loved her piece so much that she decided to write a wonderful piece about us.

So, that's a bit of what we've been up to. We're preparing for the Spring and Summer orders, don't forget to get yours in soon, we're now accepting orders for Mother's Day and Graduations! Find great idea here.

Wear your world, tell your story. What is yours?

CHART metalworks in COASTAL LIVING

Hey all!

Great news, we've gone national! Check out our spread in the March issue of Coastal Living Magazine. We're on page 30. Available to subscribers today and on news stands February, 26th. We got a full page!

We'll also have a guest blog on the Coastal Living Blog later this month, dailycatch.coastalliving.com. We'll keep you posted on this and fill you in on some of the other great artists featured in this series when we return to the studio early March!

Let's keep the momentum going in 2010, please share with a friend.

Wear Your World. Tell your story. What's yours?

This weeks' CHART story is from Emily. Her mom purchased a beautiful pendant for her birthday of the area in which Emily grew up: Friendship, Maine. Emily was born and raised in Friendship and with the exception of time away for college, lived there for 22 years. Every time she travels away she can't wait to get back. And now she has a little piece of home that she wears anywhere she travels.

We're curious about your story--please share it!

You can have your own CHART jewelry piece and tell your own story...visit our website to view our entire collection.

Tell your story...WEAR YOUR WORLD...what's yours?

TAKE CARE

There are many methods to keeping your silver jewelry sparkly--silver cleaners, polishing cloths, silver paste. These methods work best on a polished finish. Your CHART metalworks piece has a brushed silver finish.

The best way to clean your piece:

Gently rub the silver with a clean, dry green ScotchPad (yup, the kind you keep under the kitchen sink to scrub your pots & pans, just be sure to use a new one). Be careful not to make contact with the glass-like resin. Our bronze pieces will patina favorably but can also be cleaned in the same manner if you should desire. The clear resin surface can be buffed with a soft cloth and car/boat wax if you slightly scratch it.

When you are not wearing your CHART metalworks piece (the rare occasion!) just keep it in a sealed baggie. Remove as much air as you can before you seal the bag---it's the O2 that makes your silver tarnish.

The best way to avoid your CHART metalworks piece from tarnishing is to wear it. Constant friction against the silver slows the tarnishing process. Be prepared... your voice might get a work out because when others notice your unique piece they are bound to ask you about it...and then you've got to tell them the story behind your special place.

Tell your story ~ WEAR YOUR WORLD ~ what's yours?

CHART story

Today we celebrate a selection short but sweet CHART stories... Enjoy! We've got some great Valentine's Day stories coming soon, we'll post after Sunday, don't want to ruin the surprise!

We made a bronze zipper pull a while back for Amy, a mother of two. It features Glidden Point of New Castle, Maine. To some Glidden Point represents great oysters, to Amy it represents the piece of Maine to which she moved back from Massachusetts to raise her two kids.

For Marcel, a summer time Bangor resident, we made a St. John belt buckle where he winters.

Kahsi, a Portland resident, received a great medium silver pendant on leather cord of Castine to celebrate where she grew up. She liked it so much she gifted her sister a similar piece for Christmas!

For Kelly, a woman from Windham, she received a ring featuring a historic chart of Belize. Belize is where she was married.

Our friend Jen, a very talented South Portland photographer, you can view some of her work here, gifted a large silver pendant on sterling choker to of Scituate, Massachusetts to her aunt. It features the seaside cliffs as a memorial to where Jen's cousin is buried.

There are many stories to tell!

Wear Your World. Tell Your Story. What's Yours?

Today's CHART story is from Kerry Corthell who purchased a bracelet as a gift for her sister...Enjoy!

Corthell Lane, Hersey Cove, Pembroke, Maine

We have a one room wooden cabin (electricity, but an outhouse and you have to haul water from a nearby spring) in Hersey Cove, Pembroke, Maine where we spent many hours on our summer vacations finding treasures of all kinds on that beach. My grandfather lived in Pembroke and managed the Socony Mobil plant for decades. He originally had a couple hundred acres, giving about 25 acre ocean front lots to my father and his brother to build some camps.

In the early 70's my father bought the Puffin Pig in Whiting, Maine and my parents, brother and sister all lived in this one room camp through the winter while their house was being built next to the store. I even came up for Christmas and stayed in the camp with them that year. That was interesting going off to the outhouse at night before bed. It took my mother a long time to understand why my sister was so gracious in letting her 'go' first!

We sometimes think of how much the taxes are and how much it might have sold for over the years, but none of us want to let the land go and hope some day to be able to dig a well and put in a septic tank and add a bathroom on so that us 'old' folks can stay there for periods of time and enjoy our little piece of the real Maine.

Commemorate a loved one's special memory. Order yours today.

Tell your story. WEAR YOUR WORLD. What's your story?