Pinables are hand made from recycled paper. "When I make my paper pulp, I recycle brown paper bags, notes the teachers send home from school, the Wallstreet Journal, junk mail, envelopes, Christmas cards and more"

 After the paper pulp is made, Paula and a staff of skilled artisans, casts the pulp into molds.

 Each piece of jewelry carries Paula's signature as a guarentee that it was carefully handcrafted with her unique process.

 After the piece is sculpted and signed, it goes through a preservation process, which allows you to wear the jewelry with confidence in all types of weather.

 Paula s experimentation with sculpting jewelry out of handmade paper in the late 1980's led to the development of a unique preservation process. This process is the same Paula and her team uses today with Pinables; and is what makes her jewelry both delightful and durable.

 All findings are glued and cured. We never use hot glue. We use Fine Jewelry Clasps (that won't snag silks and rayons) and surgical steel posts & wires.

 The last step when creating Pinables is the adornment stage. Known for her graphic style, Paula embellishes her creations with Czech Glass Beads, Mother-of-pearl and Hemalite Hearts. Once again, this is done totally by hand, ensuring no two pieces of jewelry will ever be alike.

ABOUT PAULA HANUS:

As a young girl, pretty things have always captured my imagination: while sitting at my mother's dressing table, an ordinary pin could whisk my mind away to wonderful places, where I could be a fairy princess holding a precious piece of jewelry...

As an adult, I have never lost my fascination with jewelry and it's magic. How it could turn an ordinary girl into a princess. This fascination turned into an obsession in 1986. I was pursuing a master's degree in art at the University of Northern Iowa. The course was handmade paper. From the moment I pulled my first piece of paper I knew I had found something magical. While the other students were creating wonderful works of art that hung on a wall, I was trying to find a way to hang the paper on me. By 1987, I had developed a special preservation process, which would make the paper strong so that I could sculpt it into jewelry. For the next 10 years, I sold my handmade paper collages and jewelry at art shows across the Midwest, and met thousands who shared this same fascination with jewelry and it's magic.

Today, I live in Clear Lake, Iowa, with my husband and 3 boys. And since that little girl inside of me just won't go away, I am continuing to bring beauty and fantasy to my life everyday through my whimsical line of pins and earrings called Pinables. Even more special is the fact that I can share the magic of Pinables with you. Try one on, and see if you find the little girl inside of you.

Paula Chenchar Hanus