michelle kaufmann designs

You know you’ve got a creative person on your hands when she can take somethings like an old bowling ball or layers of old car paint and turn it into a piece of refined, elegant jewelry. By that standard, Kirsten Muenster is definitely a creative person. She is also a very socially and environmental conscious person, which she again demonstrates through her absolutely beautiful jewelry designs.

The silver in her pieces is almost all 100% recycled content and much of the gold she uses is 100% recycled, as well. All the pearls and some of the stones in her work are recycled from vintage jewelry. Kristen also recycles all of her scrap material and has a sort of recycling “program” to encourage her family, friends and clients to donate old, unworn and unloved jewelry for her to refine into new materials. She uses unconventional (to say the least) materials as a means of reclaiming things what might otherwise go to waste, such as old bowling balls, copper fire brick (a byproduct of the copper smelting process) and “Fordit” (a byproduct of the automotive assembly paint plant process made up of multiple layers of automotive paint from the 50’s, 60’s & 70’s).

Kristen avoids using mined materials in her jewelry, which prevents her from contributing to the depletion of these natural resources and to the indirect environmental damage that mining itself causes. This also lends her jewelry a socially responsible quality since so often in the precious stones and metals mining industries do we see a disregard for the basic human rights of miners who must work under dangerous and even deadly conditions. The few new stones she does purchase are from small, family owned mines. When these mining areas are no longer being worked, the entire disturbance is recovered, reclaimed, and seeded or planted.

Besides the many sustainability points that Kristen’s jewelry earns for all this, the end product is just simply stunning. Her jewelry collection is a perfect combination of beautiful design and eco-friendliness and that’s why we love it oh so much.