Registered fishermen still waiting by the phone for BP
June 22, 2010
Helen LeBoeuf
June 24, 2010
Sherri Dugan peers into the glass jewelry case, her eyes set on a shiny silver pelican pendant at Earl Williams Clothing Store on West Main Street. Next to it is an antiqued silver red fish pin, belly up, with a small black ribbon looped behind it.
Both pieces are part of New Orleans jeweler Mignon Faget’s “In Mourning” collection, which was created in response to the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster to help raise awareness and funds for relief efforts.
“I have the pelican already,” said Dugan, a loyal Mignon Faget customer and former Houma resident who now lives in Baton Rouge.
The jewelry stand in Earl Williams Clothing Store was the idea of Mary Jane LaRussa, one of Faget’s former employees.
“When I retired I said I would like to open up a division of Mignon here, so I rented the space here and I sell it, and we really do quite well,” LaRussa said, who has been selling Faget’s designs for about four years in the store.
“On a busy month I’d say I sell three-fourths of my inventory, and the prices range anywhere from $45 to the thousands,” she said.
LaRussa admires Faget’s pieces because of how she utilizes the earth in all of her designs. Faget even took some graduate courses in botany at Tulane University, according to her website.
“She believes in the earth,” LaRussa said. “We even did a commercial shoot from Pelican Island when I worked for her to promote her collection.”
The designs in “In Mourning,” were originally created for the opening of the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas, but after the oil spill, Faget pulled some of those designs to be used in the “In Mourning” collection. The jewelry should be worn in the tradition of mourning jewelry, according to Faget.
“She wants to do this to help the oil clean up, so she just pulled all this together to give 10 percent to benefit the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana (CRCL),” LaRussa said.
The line includes redfish, speckled trout, oyster and pelican pins backed with black ribbons. They may also be worn as pendants on black cords. Faget’s oyster necklace is oxidized silver, to give the look of an oil stain, and it hangs from black and brown ribbons. Even the bracelets with crabs and shrimp have chains that are oxidized black to be reminiscent oilrig chains.
A lot of the pieces in the collection are selling out fast to customers wanting to help benefit the relief efforts.
“I have a waiting list for the pelican pin,” LaRussa said.
The pieces in Faget’s collection start at $65, and can be purchased at her New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Metairie and Houma locations, as well as online at: www.mignonfaget.com. Many of the pieces are still on backorder, but customers are still encouraged to order to support the CRCL.
“It is a heartbreaking statement to make with jewelry originally designed to celebrate the abundant gifts of our coast,” Faget said in a press release. “But the reality is that we need to make people aware of this disaster and the long-term effects on this region. We all need to do what we can.”
Mary Jane LaRussa (right) helps long-time Mignon Faget customer, Sherri Dugan (left) pick out jewelry from the “In Mourning” collection at the Earl Williams Store in Houma. * Photo by JENNA FARMER
