In the beach community of Ventura, California, designer Donna von Hoesslin of Betty Belts draws inspiration for her jewelry designs from her love of the ocean and surfing. Together with surfboard shaper Dennis Ryder, the two decided to capture and repurpose excess resin left over from the surfboard building process.
—Brittany McVicker
BETTY BELTS
Upcycled surfboard mini-circle resin earring
$48
bettybelts.com
My favorite kind of Easter Eggs.
My sea glass mini pendants in some gorgeous colors. Some of these are available online until they are sold. Don’t hesitate if you want one in a special color, as I only have a few in stock at a time. See available colors here.
I’ve been too busy organizing this awesome event to write about it yet!
But today is the last day to sign up for the conference. We have a few spots open still if you want to come.
Saturday is the last day to sign up for FLOW Jam, the Sunday Fundraiser for Blue Ocean Sciences.
FLOW: triiibes 2012 Retreat is a meeting of entrepreneurs, linchpins, artists and community inspired by the example set by Seth Godin, an author and blogger who driving new marketing ideas in the digital age.
At this 3rd Annual Global triiibes Retreat, we have assembled an impressive group of thought leaders from multiple disciplines to speak on the topic of FLOW, and how this concept of mindfullness and presence can effect great change in both business & our personal lives.
We invite you to bathe in the beauty of the Pacific ocean while we open your minds to science, communication, technology, spirituality, innovation and just plain fun!
Speakers include Blue Ocean Sciences, Ocean Futures at Patagonia, Opus Novum, David Pu’u, Dr. Ed Brenegar, Bragg Health Insititute and many more!
As Seth himself has said: “I’m delighted that so many people are realizing how easy and powerful it is to surround oneself with people who will egg you on. Projects large and small are being spawned, but far more powerful, I think, is the psychic energy and encouragement you find when you discover that others are doing what you’re doing, that they’re walking the same road.”
Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air. – Emerson
The ocean is our sanctuary. We hope that through this gathering of great minds, with the flow of the sea as our soundtrack, we can set our collective neurons firing to invent new solutions for her preservation and new paths for our own creative futures.
On Sunday night, get yourself ready for an amazing evening of food, friends and great music as tribes Ventura welcome you to FLOW Jam, an interactive experience of art, learning and laughter as we wrap up the conference sessions with local musicians and some very special guests!
In the past few years, it seems that everyone has turned toward green. In fact, the color has become a necessary branding indicator for everything from chain stores to politicians, and sometimes one with little significance. It is certainly a pity that the green movement has come to this, but here is why. In the hard light of day, people are what matter. We are one of the few entities on this spinning ball with the power to mitigate our effect. But where does one begin?
Look in the mirror. It must begin with the individual. The Laws of Exponentiality and the tenet of Ephemeralization, which was expounded on by Buckminster Fuller in 1938, basically say that we ought to be able to do more with less. This really is the key to going green. Unfortunately, it is the polar opposite of capitalist commerce and most political systems of governance.
That is what made the trip to Bali by Donna Von Hoesslin, owner of Betty Belts in Ventura and my girlfriend, and some of the women on her team a fascinating concept. Here you had a capitalist—a businesswoman—determined to create some positive change by being truly green. She resolved to invest in socially sustainable projects in a developing country that would supply her company with ethically made, yet price-competitive products.
We had met David Booth, a former British civil engineer with the World Bank, a few years back. Booth basically retired to Bali, where he founded and developed an NGO called the East Bali Poverty Project (EBPP).
The group of us embarked on the trip to Bali in an effort to give back and to explore additional methods of bringing commerce to the people Booth had literally dedicated his remaining years of life to saving and putting on the path to an economically, culturally and ecologically sustainable future.
This particular morning we rolled down the gravel drive of Villa Gayatri (our palatial trip headquarters) in Ubud with Gusti at the wheel. Thanks to planning, hope and circumstance, we were joined by four of Von Hoesslin’s company icons-ambassadors and filmmaker Aaron Marcellino for the two-hour drive into the mountains of East Bali.
We had been invited to attend a festival where most of the children who had been educated through the project would be participating in one great big party of sorts. It was part of a celebration of Balinese Independence Day.
In 1998 Booth set out specifically to find the poorest people on Bali. He figured that he should begin his plan by putting it to the most difficult of tests. He had heard rumors of a lost tribe, a group cut off from Balinese society by a volcano eruption and the ensuing simple fact that no one thought to ever look for them. Hiking deep into the mountainous country of Eastern Bali with a guide, he found them. They were a lost and dying tribe—people who, as Booth observed, never smiled.
Most who travel Bali have experienced the cultural blessing of the Balinese smile. It is a renowned national asset. The people smile—it is how they are set spiritually. But that wasn’t the case for the long-lost tribe. They had lost their smiles and much more. Booth saw them as a test case for world cultural development. He began to develop a plan to restore them one person at a time. He would do it through the children.
No one is exactly sure where the tribe came from originally, but Booth suspected that maybe it had been Lombok, due to a strong resemblance to those who reside on that island.
The eruption, poor diet, a persistent problem with goiter, and a few other environmentally related issues had combined to provide a lack of real history due to memory loss. In effect, these people were the tribe that the world had forgotten and who, literally, had no real knowledge of their own history. Imagine that, not knowing where your family had come from or your town.
In terms of Western understanding, that is true loss and deprivation—not having a history. No connection to anything. They were a people who had lost almost all aspects of everything vital and necessary for human existence. They were failing.
I met and interacted with the children and had a hard time keeping back the tears because I understood that now these children have hope. A future now exists for them, where only death and oblivion had loomed prior.
The short of it is that the tribe is back. And in their return, Booth has shown us a way that we can transform our own society potentially. It is a great story that will make the world smile. We all need hope. No matter what our lot in life.
Hate, division and separation are odd and common bedfellows. Love is a better way, and it is much stronger. We saw the effects of it our entire trip.
It was a great gift, and we learned in the process of surfing, communicating, planning and working with Betty B’s affiliates in Bali (yes, this is somewhat ironic) what “green” and “sustainability” ought to look like: health and happiness. Pursue that. We have the world and the oceans to gain.
On the back end of all of this, one of my favorite organizations, 1% for the Planet, which was conceived by Patagonia’s Yvonne Chouinard, had at Von Hoesslin’s behest and efforts, put the EBPP on its donor list as an environmental cause. I was impressed by this because it illustrated to me that some people in charge really do understand that the key to a green world is in affecting people. It left me with a dose of hope.
To learn more about the EBPP visit www.eastbalipovertyproject.org/tag/david-booth.
I picked David up at the airport this morning before dawn and we drove up the coast back to Ventura. He is just in from a 3D water shoot with National Geographic TV.
We stopped at the beach and ventured out into the howling Santa Ana winds to snap a few pictures. Me with my iPhone and David with his Canon 5D Mark 2.
Sand and water blowing in 60MPH gusts. Beautiful Day.
Santa Ana Wave PCH
Offshore Santa Ana blasting into a backwash wave collision. Three power forces slamming together.
David Pu'u scopes the scene on a Ventura County beach
Beach Sunrise at Mugu Rock, Ventura County
People ask me almost every day in the shop “How do you make it?” about my upcycled surfboard resin jewelry. They are fascinated by how sleek and strong it is, the way the light shines through it and the play of colors. It’s a longish story… Back in 2008 my shaper, Dennis Ryder, who had been making tail blocks for some of his high-end boards out of the stuff, suggested I try making jewelry with it. I was instantly overwhelmed at the thought and let it sit for a while. It wasn’t until 2009, with Dennis’ encouragement, that I decided to take on the challenge and start the development process for this new Betty B. collection.
Afternoon sunlight shines through my surfboard resin rings in a display of pretty color.
I knew it would not be easy. I wanted to create something that would make my designs easily reproduced and consistent so I could offer it on my website and in my wholesale program around the world. Working with leftover surfboard resin is not as easy as you’d think. Ask anyone who has tried it. My collaborator in life, David Pu’u, surfboard shaper for over 30 years, told me that he had perpetually lamented the steady supply of waste hardened resin, which would end up in a landfill as a byproduct of the manufacturing process. “We tried for years to come up with a viable use for the beautiful but inert and permanent multi-colored polyesther plastic”, he says.
Some of the actual surfboards the jewelry was made from, courtesy Ventura Surf Shop.
Each stripe in the jewelry is from a surfboard. A board that was made for a surfer. The colors we get in each batch are always random and beautiful, excess resin carefully captured and saved from each board made. Wearing a piece is a very unique way to stay connected to the ocean, because those boards are out there riding waves.
The source of my upcycled surfboard resin jewelry
A year of steady R&D passed and with the expertise and input of three local manufacturers, I came up with a product that was all of the above but with one serious caveat: It was costly to produce. There are many people in the production chain and it’s locally made right here in Ventura. There’s a lot of hand work on these pieces, a lot of stoke and love goes into them. The expertise and skills combined to make them do not come cheap.
Surfboard resin rings with surfboard
As many will remember who came into my Ventura shop during that time or visited the Betty Belts booth at Sacred Craft at the last ASR show in San Diego, I had some prototypes out just to see if and how people respond to them and if the price was bearable. Luckily response was favorable, and my fear that people may not see the value in a “piece of plastic” was alleviated. We went into production in the Fall of 2010 and the rest is history.
The earrings are wired up by myself and Amanda here at the shop and at home and I offer the necklaces on a variety of cord styles the customer can choose.
Sierra Partridge in a shoot for Hobie Girl, wearing Betty B. Surfboard Resin earrings.Upcycled Surfboard Resin Necklace
Upcycled Surfboard Resin Heart Necklace
Upcycled Surfboard Resin Necklace
Upcycled Surfboard Resin Earrings
Mini Circle Hoops made from upcycled surfboard resin
Upcycled Surfboard Resin Necklace
