heavy, heavy fuel.

The wonderful glasfaden recently put one of my Heavy Fuel necklaces in an Etsy treasury devoted to Gulf Coast cleanup. Most of the sellers she featured are donating a portion of their sales from their shops or specific items to Gulf restoration. I'm ashamed to say it hadn't occurred to me to do that with this particular design, and I just ended up in her list because of the title of my item. (It was originally named for the excellent song by Dire Straits.)

However, it struck me as a perfect opportunity to draw continued attention to the damage that BP's catastrophic oil spill is causing to the beautiful and economically critical Gulf Coast area. There is so much work to be done, and my kind friend Keri in New Orleans recommended some good organizations to me - the kind that use more of their money for work and less for PR, and that target specific efforts. If you'd like to donate directly, or volunteer, you can find more information at any of these websites:

http://www.saveourwetlands.org
http://www.matteroftrust.org
http://www.healthygulf.org/

With that in mind, I spent a lot of this past weekend creating new Heavy Fuel designs for urban legend. The Heavy Fuel designs are made with metalized vintage Lucite beads and vintage chain. They look substantial and bulky, but because the finish is metal plated over a Lucite base, they're very lightweight and comfortable to wear. Most of these designs are one of a kind (some of the earrings are not one of a kind and can be made again); 100% of the sale of each piece will be donated to Gulf Coast Restoration Network.

The necklace is already listed in my shop; the other pieces will be listed in my shop tomorrow morning, along with several other new items in my weekly shop update. As these sell, I'll be adding more Heavy Fuel pieces to continue the fundraising effort.




And here's a little extra piece of news: I will be starting my summer sale at urban legend on Wednesday of this week. All items in my shop, with the exception of the Heavy Fuel pieces, will be 20% off from Wednesday, July 28 - Monday, August 2. The fundraising pieces will remain at full price.