TAKE WING
Unlike most brides-to-be, Nina Shope ’98 was brave enough to make her own wedding decorations: garlands and garlands of paper birds to drape on chandeliers, doorways, and the altar. Long after the reception, her avian friends lingered—today, they grace the archways of her apartment (and the top of this page; see above). Shope loved her garlands so much that one day she realized other people would probably love them too. She started selling her birds on her Etsy shop Snapdragon, and the demand was immediate. Since the birds hit the market, over 100 smitten reviewers have praised the garlands, calling them “oh so, so very pretty,” and “really gorgeous and exceptional quality decorations.” It’s no surprise given the painstaking care behind each paper figure. A bird begins as two one-sided sheets of paper, which Shope sources from an Indian company that makes it from old recycled t-shirts. The forms are then die-cut using an original stencil and carefully pieced together before being hung side-by-side. Snapdragon offers garlands in a rainbow of colors from demure black-and-white to vivid green and pink. All feature bold patterns, made delicate by the animals’ shape and size. Part of the garlands’ beauty is their versatility—they can brighten classrooms or bring joy back to kitchens in the winter months, and one reviewer said they were the perfect addition to her vintage birdcage. Snapdragon also sells DIY bird-garland kits.
$25/garland
snapdragonoriginals.etsy.com
SUSTAINABLE SILVER
Flora Jin ’14 spent three years developing her jewelry company Gauchette (the word means “left handed” in French), founded in 2023, which uses nickel-free, 100% recycled sterling silver. Butterfly and flower motifs and pink and blue pastels dress up classic styles.
$320 (Rosette Bracelet), $590 (Rosette Necklace); 10% off with code BAM10
gauchette.nyc
ARTSY PJs
Visual arts concentrator Christina J. Wang ’09 celebrates 12 of her fave female creators (hello Georgia O’Keeffe, Frida Kahlo et al) in the line-drawn portraits that adorn her “Great Women Artists” clothing line. “Most people cannot even name five women artists,” says Wang. “I aimed to change that with this print.”
$195 (pajama set), $65 (t-shirt); 10% off with code BROWN
shopcjw.com
HANDCRAFTED HEIRLOOMS
Jenna Wainwright Fennell ’02 learned metalsmithing while at Brown, then her master’s thesis focused on the role of nostalgia in the experience of goods. Now she and her husband use old world techniques to capture forgotten joys in handcrafted gold jewelry. The Emerald Astrid Ring, above, features an ethically sourced emerald set in 18-karat fair mined gold.
$3,970
eastcampgoods.com
BOOKS REBORN
“Repurposing books in a special and gorgeous way” is how Amanda Lucek ’11 describes her custom book folding sculptures. Using books from library sales, she works with clients to “create designs that often exceed their own initial imaginings.” Custom software ensures precision down to a quarter of a millimeter, allowing intricate and unique patterns.
Starting at $250; 10% off with code BAM24
unicoherent.com
SANDALWOOD GLOW
REY is perfumery MCMC’s first new scent in five years. “Fine fragrances take a long time and we wanted it to be perfect,” write the sisters behind MCMC, Anne Serrano-McClain ’05 and Kathryn McClain ’07. The idea for REY was born when Anne flew to Hawaii’s Big Island in 2021 for a birthday party for her college bestie MeiLi Coon ’05. Walking around her friend’s neighborhood, Anne caught the scent of the butteriest sandalwood she had ever encountered—courtesy of the island’s native Royal Sandalwood forests and the rich bed of volcanic ash that sustains them. Back in Brooklyn, the perfumery began: the team layered on vanilla to enhance the sandalwood’s creaminess and gave the top note sparkle with a splash of cold-pressed Persian lime. The result is an inviting, “endlessly wearable” new fragrance that “envelops you in a soft sandalwood glow.” From the start, MCMC sourced their sandalwood oil from the Big Island’s Lee family farm. The Lees’ sandalwood groves were once barren, cattle-grazed pastures, but the family bought back their ancestral land and have since restored the native sandalwood forest. With the name REY, MCMC hopes to honor the Royal Sandalwoods and the Indigenous culture in which they thrive. REY comes as an eau de parfum spray or as an oil that’s perfect for rolling onto wrists and pulse points.
$98/eau de parfum, $48 perfume oil; 15% off REY through 12/31/24 with code brownuni
mcmcfragrances.com
FIREPLUG PHOTOGRAPHY
Ken Arenberg ’52 says his trusty Canon Elph “goes with me everywhere,” and that’s saying something. The 94-year-old has traveled to more than 45 countries across six continents, and his engineer’s eye gravitates to “urban sculptures” like fire hydrants. The resulting merch includes eight hydrants from countries like Croatia, Hong Kong, Zimbabwe, and Vietnam, vividly displayed on coasters that come four to a set (fireplug poster and matching game not shown).
$38/4 ceramic coasters
circulargraphics.com
BUTTERFLY BAND
Delicate silhouettes juxtaposed with structural volume and motifs that “evoke a sense of playing dress-up in childhood” help make creations from Flora Jin ’14 distinctive. A STEM concentrator at Brown, she trained in jewelry design at FIT and now makes silver rings, bracelets, and necklaces with colorful stones and a sense of “modern romance” in her Brooklyn, NY studio.
$140 (Butterfly Trellis Ring); 10% off with code BAM10
gauchette.nyc
FUNKY NUTS
Self-described “partners in life and business” Helen Mou ’10 and Noah Fisher ’11 AM wondered how to “bring more fun” to humble pantry staple peanut butter. The result: ten zany flavors prove that more can, indeed, be more. Buffalo Crunch features buffalo coated peanuts; S’mores Maximalist adds cocoa butter, marshmallows, and chocolate-covered graham crackers to help make “campfire magic.”
$10/jar; free shipping on 2+ jars with code BROWNBEARS
backyardpeanut.com
HANDPAINTED PLACEMATS
Sally King McBride ’07 says she “can find letters in almost anything she looks at,” and she loves to bring them to life. She paints the watercolored letters for her alphabet placemats by hand and offers 17 themes including flowers, animals, and construction. With more than a decade of experience working for the Met, her placemats bring a fine-art approach to mealtime at an accessible price.
$20/each 11 x 17 in. placemat
theletternest.com
TRAVELING TREATS
In 2010, Sarah O’Brien ’04 opened Little Tart Bakeshop as a farmer’s market pastry stand. Shoppers couldn’t keep their hands off her chocolate-pistachio croissants, apple-cheddar turnovers, and lemon tarts, and the Atlanta patisserie quickly blossomed into three sit-down cafés offering delicacies like “croissant french toast with seasonal butter.” From the start, customers begged her to send baked goods through the mail as holiday surprises for loved ones. O’Brien demurred, not wanting to compromise on quality. But a few holiday seasons ago she decided to try developing recipes for some deliciously mail-proof cookies. Family and friends who agreed to focus test the idea confirmed that the goodies held up perfectly post-transit. To the joy of O’Brien’s Atlanta fanbase, Little Tart’s holiday cookie box was finally born. This holiday season, Little Tart will deliver a festive package of 24 cookies to your door (or the door of anyone who you think deserves a few extra treats come December). The parcel boasts six sophisticated cookie varietals: matcha pinwheels, hazelnut-rosemary shortbreads with lemon, golden-milk snickerdoodles, pistachio-cardamom sablés with raspberry, and for those who like to keep it simple, chocolate crackles and peanut-butter chocolate thumbprints. If like hundreds of other cookie enthusiasts you fall in love, don’t worry, because their delivery service isn’t limited to the winter season. Little Tart now offers treats for delivery year-round, with special boxes ready for Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day.
$50/box of 24 cookies
littletartatl.com
ATTENTION SAVER
Dan Butler ’09 was post-breakup in 2020 and tired of wasting time depressively doomscrolling online. Eager to “add friction” to his interactions with his devices, he created the Zendo Key, a “little dongle that would lock in my screen time limits.” Butler says it worked for him immediately, reducing his time spent on NYTimes and YouTube from 30-40 minutes each day to almost none.
$39
zendokey.com
INSIDER STORIES
Brown Corporation members submit their resignations in writing. Hearing one read aloud by a fellow trustee, Lauren Zalaznick ’84 realized that the letters, over 259 years, tell a “wise, witty, and heartfelt” story of societal shifts, crucial issues, and human values. A curated collection, with fabulous photos, fills this large-format volume.
$39.95; 10% discount with code LETTERS10
Letters From the Corporation of Brown, 1764-2023
insite.browntextbook.
PAY-IT-FORWARD POTTERY
If you happen to pass through Melrose, Mass., you might catch Michelle “Meesh” Ramadan ’10 crafting artisan pottery in her garage-turned-small-batch-art-studio. Her work features tactile textures, minimalist florals, and vibrant colors, and she donates 10 percent of profits to organizations that serve BIPOC and LGBTQ+ people.
$20-$250; 10% off through 12/06/24 with code MEESHBAM2024
meeshpottery.com
PLANT POWERED
Not content with having launched Q Mixers, now on grocery shelves nationwide, Jordan Silbert ’98 and Ben Karlin ’98 were still hungry—for protein, that is. But not the artery-blocking kind. Their plant based jerky has zero cholesterol, no artificial flavorings, and far less sugar and salt than the beef kind—but just as much protein.
$6.99; 20% off with code Bruno
getagro.com
NATURAL LIGHT
It is not often that you find lighting at this intimate scale, Elliott Rosenberg ’24 says. This small lamp’s function “becomes much more clearly to cultivate ambiance.” The Brown/RISD dual-degree student created his Echinacea series of lighting, which “explores the ways in which color, texture, light, and geometry intersect,” as part of his senior year in RISD’s furniture design program. His Brown concentrations also came in handy: “The shaping of a product with human experience at the forefront… was honed in computer science courses,” while “making something idiot-proof is a typical task for an engineer.” Referencing maritime lighthouses, Beacon features a touch dimmer connected to the weighted brass baseplate, and both the Northeast ash wood body and the glass dome—hand blown in Pawtucket, R.I.—can be ordered in a variety of muted colors. It’s a “callback to the nature-forward ethos” of Rosenberg’s design practice. “I grew up spending a large amount of time in the redwood forests,” says the California native. “The smell of dark green redwood leaves and mulch just after it has rained is the smell of home.” His vision now is to “meld fine arts, design objects, and functional home goods.” Each light is assembled by Rosenberg in his apartment in Brooklyn, New York. “As I look to reconcile my purpose in life and my ability to survive,” Rosenberg says, “being a designer might just be an opportunity to make a living while exploring the depths of the natural world.”
$270; 10% off with code ECH10
elliottrosenberg.com
Are you a maker or producer? We are on the hunt for alumni creators for our next Gift Guide! Send pitches to [email protected].