Celebrating Six Years in Detroit!
We just hit SIX whole years at our flagship store and studio in Detroit! To celebrate, we are reflecting back and looking forward to our “why.” As our business continues to grow, it’s important to remember where we came from and where we’re headed. With the simple goal of living a creative life, EBJ has evolved from long days at craft shows to now running two beautiful locations. It’s been a long and exciting journey. One thing that hasn’t changed, however, is our unwavering values to bring ethical handmade jewelry to you. This week, we wanted to take a trip down memory lane and highlight some of our favorite memories at Elaine B Jewelry!
xo Elaine
The Early Days of EBJ
Born in 2010 in a small light-filled studio in Charlottesville, Virginia, EBJ found its footing at craft fairs and small boutiques. In 2017, our studio relocated to metro Detroit. It’s hard to believe that it’s already been 6 years since our first shop opened its doors on November 1st, 2018. Between the history, community, and architecture- there’s inspiration to be found everywhere in the historic Woodward Corridor.
Elaine B Jewelry’s longtime team members and Senior Jewelers, Caitlin and Natasha, helped to open the store with Elaine. Our Senior Designer, Heather, joined EBJ in the summer of 2019. We were a small but mighty team for those early years in Detroit!
Bringing Dreams to Reality
In those 6 years, we’ve hit some really special milestones.
Our permanent jewelry experience, Forever Linked, got its footing at a Galentine's Day event in February of 2020. This was the very first time we tried out permanent jewelry with our customers. People loved it! Unfortunately, we shut it down a week later when the world shut down due to Covid.
In the summer of 2021, Katie, our Retail Operations Manager, joined the EBJ team. This marked a significant shift as we began to put more separation and emphasis on the retail side of our business. Things quickly picked up from there!
A year later, in the summer of 2022, our production team grew to five. We are so fortunate to have such talented jewelers on our team! In 2022 we became a 7 figure company. This was a huge milestone for us and one we are so thankful for! This opened the doors for even more growth in our business.
On May 7th 2022, we opened our second location in Cincinnati, Ohio. We chose Cincinnati because this city not only has a beautiful and supportive community and family ties for us, but the trip to Detroit, the location of our flagship store, is only four hours away. Our store is located in Oakley Square, across the street from the historic Twentieth Century Theater. We have loved the welcoming neighborhood of Oakley and couldn’t imagine our second location anywhere else!
From June of 2020 to the spring of 2024, we donated over $30k to nonprofit organizations through our Rise Collection. We’ve since retired our Rise Collection, but we have continued our work in giving back to the community by donating net proceeds from Forever Linked to causes we care about, sponsoring community events, and more. We can’t thank YOU enough for helping us make it happen. Community has always been a core value at EBJ.
The Evolution of Elaine B Jewelry Designs
Over the years, we’ve also experimented with many jewelry designs while staying true to what matters most to us. All of our jewelry is still handmade by our all-women team of jewelers in our flagship location in Detroit. Check out some of our earliest designs below!
A side by side comparison of some of our designs from past and present by Elaine B Jewelry.
Growing Our Team
With a growing business comes the growth of our team. We’ve felt so lucky to add some incredible women to the EBJ family these last few years. From our jewelers and sales associates, all the way to our marketing team and social media, we’ve grown in every aspect of the business. This team is our heart and soul.
The Elaine B Jewelry team is packed with diverse creative skill sets. From jewelry making, wedding photography, illustrating, graphic design, all the way to fashion runways - our team’s combined creative skills are unmatched. We pride ourselves on paying a living wage and supporting our employees in all of their outside artistic endeavors. These different creative perspectives and personalities offer a truly exciting jewelry shopping experience.
We recently had our annual team building in Detroit. We had so much fun bonding, making TikToks, and celebrating all of our accomplishments together!
Meet our beautiful team at Elaine B Jewelry!
Upholding Our Values
We have always believed that spaces should be inspiring, and communities should be supportive. Whether you’ve done a custom project with us, got Forever Linked, or just stopped by to say hello - we’ve cherished every moment with you. We hope that you’ve felt our support in return through our support of local nonprofit organizations, our small business partnerships, and community building efforts.
At Elaine B Jewelry, we know exactly where our metal and stones come from- maintaining relationships with miners, stone cutters, and companies that run transparent supply chains. We source first from local and then from American companies.
Supporting Love in All Forms
We make jewelry for everyone. No matter your gender, sexual orientation, religion, race, or even personality- we want to make jewelry that’s perfect for you. Every person and love story is always welcome at Elaine B Jewelry. We want you to know that you are loved and supported no matter who you are.
Thank You For Supporting Elaine B Jewelry
Thank you for supporting Elaine B Jewelry and most importantly handmade, American made, small business. We love what we do, we love sharing the story of how things are made and combining traditional techniques and craftsmanship with modern technology and efficiency.
We have a lot of exciting projects in the works, some parties and workshops, new jewelry directions, growing families and so much more! Follow along on all the social media to see what we're up to and you can always send us a message if you have any questions or want to know more about our business.
From 2010-2024, you’ve supported Elaine B Jewelry from far and wide. We are so excited to continue to grow with you. xoxox
Shop All Engagement Rings here.
Learn more about Forever Linked here.
Shop All Collections here.