Nature Jewelry
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About Us
- Who are you people?
Marcus Berkner Designs is a husband and wife business with 3 partners: Marcus and Amy Berkner, and our best buddy, Eli. Eli has had to slow down a bit as he is getting older, but he still does his fair share. He is the good-looking partner, so we always use his picture. We live in Eugene, Oregon.
- What is it you do?
We make jewelry. We have done bead work for decades and began this business selling at our local handcrafted market - Eugene Saturday Market. At the beginning, it was just Marcus and Amy. About 15 years ago, Marcus started learning metal-smithing and we gradually added his silver designs to our bead-work. Around that time, we also began to have a larger web presence.
- Where is the business going?
In the last few years, we have decided we would like to sell our metal designs more and cut back on the beadwork.
What we are attempting to do with our silver designs, is provide a higher standard of product, by putting more design into the metal and also working with patinas, so our products are "forever" products. We sell less items, but the items are the type that never go out of style and they retain their style even if the product gets treated roughly or is left out in the elements.
You will likely see less beaded items available on the site as time goes by, however we hope to keep a few of the most popular products as long as we can purchase supplies to create them from reputable companies.
- Is this a "green" company?
In case you are wondering what a 'green' company would be, it means a business that causes very little stress to the environment and it can also mean a company that has fair labor practices.
Keeping 'green' values close to the heart is almost a prerequisite for living in the Pacific Northwest. We live at the center of one of the original "tree-hugging" cultures, that began making people more aware of environmentally-sound practices in the 1960s. Our city is extremely conscious of recycling, avoiding unnecessary waste, and other 'green' practices. The trees in the northwest are magnificent. We live in a rain forest and the trees are considered to be some of the largest varieties in the world. So as a business, we are naturally concerned with 'green' values. Also as a family and as individuals, we don't want to destroy the beauty that surrounds us.
We realize silver mining is not at all an environmental positive, but since silver is a precious metal, 99.9% of all discarded silver is recycled. The silver we use tends to run about 90% recycled. We do not use 100 percent recycled silver as it will likely only force some other manufacturer to use more newly-mined silver, since there is a finite amount of recycled silver available.
Our metal designs are not reliant on purchasing beads from over-seas suppliers, so we do not have to concern ourselves with accidentally purchasing items made by companies with harsh labor conditions or which cause environmental hazards we are unaware of - another reason we have severely cut back on using manufactured beads, and instead spend more time designing silver pieces.
We have a great recycling operation here in our city for general office waste, so recycling of all the papers and boxes that come through the business has been made very convenient for us. We also try to do the standard 'green' practices, such as always contacting suppliers who send paper catalogs and letting them know it is not neccesary to send the paper catalog, since we always shop online. We keep our work-environment chilly in the winter, and we do not have air-conditioning, so on really hot summer days, we just have to take the day off and go to the riverside. We also try to re-use all the by-products of our operation that we can. (Casting investment does wonders for the garden. :o))
More questions about our company? Please contact us. Thank you for your interest in Marcus Berkner Designs.
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