About Us, Blue Girl, and our Materials
About Us
We are Erin and Una, a mother-daughter collaboration. We both began expressing ourselves through drawing and painting at a young age and grew through many mediums. Most recently we fell in love with beading. Our initial inspiration came from gemstones in our art supply stash, thrifted necklaces, and bead shops. Building color blocks around stone and glass beads, mixing materials, and matching the changing colors of the seasons has kept us excited about creating new and varied jewelry.
About Blue Girl
We come from generations of artists - it’s in our DNA.
Inspiration for the name of our shop comes from a painting of a woman in a blue dress that is about 100 years old. She hung in our grandmother’s home, and she has been lovingly called Blue Girl. Blue Girl was painted by a close friend and gifted to our great, great, great aunt, who was an artist in New York City in the first half of the 20th century. Blue Girl went on to live with our great-aunt for several more decades. At one point Blue Girl was taken and lost.
In February 2023, she was found again, but damaged. A talented framer in Minneapolis meticulously cleaned and repaired her, and gave her a fresh new frame.
Now, Blue Girl hangs in our home; inspiring and watching over the creation of every new piece.
About our Materials
We do our best to source the glass, stones, and findings we use for our jewelry from ethical and responsible places. The majority of our materials come from small businesses here in the Twin Cities, small sellers on Etsy, or are bought second-hand. Although we are intentional about our sourcing, we are not able to guarantee that each bead came from a positive place.