Today We Turn 10! Looking Back on a Decade of Betty Belts.

It’s really hard to believe it’s been 10 years.

All month long I’ve been posting images from the Betty Belts vault on our Facebook page and it’s been interesting looking back at all the cool things we’ve done, with people we love. I begin to realize, I could write a book about it all…

Team Betty in downtown Ventura 2008. From left, Sierra Partridge, Jeanette Ortiz, Mary Osborne, Bo Stanley and Hailey Partridge. © David Pu’u

Team Betty on the boat to go surfing in Bali. © David Pu’u

I am joyfully grateful to still be here, inspired and making beautiful things to express one’s love of the ocean. I want to extend a heartfelt message of gratitude to all of my mentors over the years, to my lovely surfing and ocean-loving ambassadors “Team Betty”, to my wonderful retailers, to my extended family in Bali who have grown with me over the years making ever better products and to all of you who wear and love my belts, jewelry and accessories and spread the aloha everywhere you wear them.

Me and some of our staff in Bali. I am sharing photos from home on the iPad.

I am especially grateful to my husband, David Pu’u, who from the start was always there (I hired him for our first-ever photo shoot)… even long before we became an “item”… mentoring, capturing iconic imagery, inspiring me, helping to cultivate a brand, a lifestyle we love and live. David always understood what my deeper goals were in having a positive effect in our world.

David and I on a trip to San Francisco, a place that provides a lot of inspiration.

Here are some images from that vault. Some of my favorites over the years. There are many more where these came from… Hopefully I will get to publish that book and share them with you one day.

Mary Osborne in a very early Betty Belts poster, 2003… photo: David Pu’u

Sierra Partridge of Team Betty © David Pu’u

Hailey Partridge in a shoot for Hobie Girl, wearing Betty B. One of my all-time favorites from our first year of making upcycled surfboard resin jewelry.

Jeanette Ortiz wearing the Compassion necklace. © David Pu’u

A favorite of Jeanette Ortiz modeling one of my red carpet sea glass necklaces in a tidepool on a private California beach.

Me in the Betty Bus, an old favorite from the image vault, circa 2005.  © David Pu’u

An ad we ran in 7Sky, a European magazine 2010.

Giving Back On Thanksgiving Weekend: 25% of Our Total Sales to Sandy Relief

Instead of the typical Black Friday sale, adding to the flood of emails you are inevitably receiving (I know I sure am) from retailers competing for your eyeballs and wallets, we really want to offer something different here at Betty B.

I consider this whole Black Friday hoopla a race to the bottom I do not want to participate in as a retailer. I would rather join the race to something different, something human and out of a space of generosity for others not so fortunate, not out of greed.

It’s so funny because my daily read Seth Godin blogged about this very subject today: In a Hurry to be Generous

So here it is, my Thanksgiving Weekend Special:

• All Weekend Long Thursday-Sunday we are donating 25% of all sales in the online shop to Clean Ocean Action, a cause currently devoted to coordinating a rebuilding, recovering, and restoration program for communities affected by Hurricane Sandy.
• And 25% of all Ventura shop sales on Friday, Saturday and Sunday will be donated to Clean Ocean Action.
• I have a free surprise gift for all shoppers on all three days who come in to the retail store and spend $25. What is it? Come in and find out!
• Saturday is a big day for AMEX users, as they can get a $25 statement credit for shopping small and that includes Betty Belts. Sign up now if it’s not too late (offer is capped): https://www.americanexpress.com/us/small-business/Shop-Small/

Throughout the weekend, I will be posting how much money we’ve raised so far on the Betty Belts FB page as tie allows. Thank you notes go out to all making online orders here stating the amount from their purchase that gets donated. My first online order came in this morning and I am happy to say so far it’s $49.75. If you are planning on buying some of your holiday gifts from me and want to make a difference with your wallet, do it before Sunday night, please.

That said, we are planning another cause day December 2nd for Friends of the Ventura River.

Oh, lest I forget! My husband, David Pu’u, has jumped in and will be donating 25% of his royalties from his print sales until the end of December to Clean Ocean Action. Read about it in his blog: Tis the Season. Enjoy a tiny sampling of his work below.

“Gratitude” by David Pu’u Surfer: Sean Tully

Light Fantastic: Happiness by David Pu’u Surfer: Sean Tully

“Enlightenment” by David Pu’u

Sierra Partridge by David Pu’u

Pink Champagne Barrel by David Pu’u Surfer: Larry Ugale

Behind The Scenes: Making my Upcycled Surfboard Resin Jewelry

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

Bikinis & Bangles – The Making of the Hobie Bohemian Bangle

Some of the 17 hand-painted styles we created for Hobie Girl. You cant even buy this collectors item! The only way to get one is to buy a Hobie Bikini at a partipating Dillards or other Hobie retailer.

I’ve spent the past two months working on a really cool project with Hobie, one of the oldest iconic surf brands, today a multifaceted conglomerate of fun things us ocean lovers do in the water, sailing, kayaking, surfing and much more. Together we created a Betty Belts private label product, a hand painted bangle to be used as a gift-with-purchase promotion for retailers who sell Hobie Girl Bikinis. Buy a bikini, get a free bangle.

On various levels I’ve worked with Hobie for years. We share two brand ambassadors, a.k.a. “team riders”, the lovely surfing twins Sierra and Hailey Partridge. Sierra and Hailey have been with Team Betty since 2005, when Betty Belts became their first surfing sponsor. Photographer David Pu’u, who around then became my own partner in life, started shooting them surfing and modeling BB and soon got them cast as models for a Hobie photo shoot in Hawai’i. One thing led to another, with the girls proving their water skills to be numerous, and they became the first female athletes since Joyce Hoffman (1962) to get signed on by the brand.

Hailey and Sierra Partridge modeling one of the 2011 Hobie Bikinis. Hailey is also wearing my new "surfboard resin" earrings, made from excess surfboard resin collected by local shapers. Upcycle with style!

Every year since, Hobie has hired David to shoot most of their product lines, including the bikini line for their ad and retailer display campaigns. And Betty B. accessories make a frequent appearance on Hailey and Sierra.  I myself am the one who styles and accessorizes the bikini shoots every year. We all work really well together and the results are always gorgeous.

When they started thinking about their annual gift-with-purchase for 2011, Carrie Seifert, PR Director for the brand, contacted me about Betty Belts possibly creating the giveaway for them for 2011. Together we came up with the hand-painted bangle idea, using the patterns from the 2011 Hobie bikini collection to make them extra special and collectible.

Nyoman's beautiful hands add a layer of design to one of the Hobie Bohemian Bangles. Each one is painted by hand by the Balinese Artisans of Betty B. for the Hobie Project.

My  artisans in Bali have been very excited about the project and diligently hand painted 9000 bangles in 17 different patterns to become a gift with a Hobie Bikini purchase at Dillard’s Stores and other select Hobie retailers this Spring. For a retailer near you, check with Hobie Girl.

Please see the photos below and their captions to get to know the people behind this project and enjoy the  interesting back stories. I am very proud of my artisans for pulling his off in a relatively short amount of time and especially to my Bali production manager Ketut, for coordinating everything over there so seamlessly and capturing the process in these photos.

My staff in Bali and I are looking forward to doing more private label jobs like this for other companies who want to have something more authentic and unique to represent their brand.

For more info please visit www.BettyBelts.com

Betty Belts artisan Komang Oka, age 25, carefully paints the Hobie floral pattern onto one of the Hobie Bohemian Bangles.

Here you can easily see the first two steps painting this Hobie Design on the bangles. They need to dry between each coat. They can have as many as 12 layers of colors in the patterns we made.

Wayan Karmini, age 22, is meticulously painting pink dots on the bangles. She is wearing her old stained clothes for painting, but still matched it up. Notice the way she holds her pinky finger, which is an aspect of traditional Balinese dance.

A close up view of Wayan's talented hands at work.

These Hobie Bohemian Bangles have a few more layers to go before they are finished, but they already look really cool!

Betty Belts Artisan Made Nguwer, age 17, paints pink dots on one of the flower Bohemian Bangles. She practices Traditional Balinese Dance, as you can see by the way she holds her fingers here.

Kadek Kenti, age 21, takes a break from painting to spend a moment with her daughter. Children are cherished in Bali. Interesting Fact: Balinese Babies feet are not allowed to touch the ground for the first six months of their lives to protect them from evil spirits.

Ketut and Ayu who work at Betty Belts HQ in Bali carefully pack the bangles for shipping to California. Interesting fact: Everything we make and process in Bali gets blessed every day in their Hindu rituals. It is an important part of the culture that is an important part of the making of BB products. You can always feel the love when you own a piece made by Betty Belts.

Ketut Lestari, age 23, sits behind a wall of bangles in the Betty Belts HQ in Bali, doing quality control of each and every one before they get stacked and packed for shipping. We had the same situation here in California when they arrived.

The Hobie logo is painted onto the inside of every bangle.

That's me, Donna, surrounded by boxes of Hobie bangles at our house. The shipment was too large to process at the tiny Betty B. shop in Ventura, so we did it over several days in the living room of our home. Our cats enjoyed their temporary perches on makeshift box towers in their terrain.

Sierra Partridge of Team Betty and Team Hobie was over at the house to shoot some surfing with David and helped quality control the shipment from Bali one evening. Thank you, Sierra!

Our cats Ninja and Samurai enjoyed having a house full of boxes while we processed the huge shipment of Hobie Bohemian Bangles in our living room.

Cause Collection – Four Surfers | Four Designs | Four Causes

I have a beautiful new collection coming out shortly (check www.BettyBelts.com starting May 10th). I’ve been busy tying up all the loose ends to get it on the site and available to you. Meanwhile, my S.O. David Pu’u, who shot all the designs and the women behind them, Team Betty, wrote a beautiful piece on his blog, which is also a source for a sneak peek at the new Betty B. designs for 2010.

As a local yoga teacher always says: Come see!

Excerpt from David’s Blog:

My girlfriend, Donna Von Hoesslin, who heads up yet another globally connected small business that is based here (Betty B) told me that she was in desperate need of images for a new line of jewelry which is designed by members of Team Betty.

So we dropped in on the party at J’s, sat in the window booth and shot the girl’s designs there as Bobby and crew rocked. Typically we would do this away in some distant land, or somewhere on the coast. Definitely not associated with any particular business. (I actually have developed a penchant for Ventura night, street shoots) But deciding to both take care of Betty B’s business needs, and provide bodies, texture and a few extra dollars to the day’s till at J’s, allowed for an exponential increase of benefit for everyone involved.

Here is a video that explains in 4 minutes, the gist of Donna’s remarkable company. We did the piece for the Intuit Small Business United program. It helped Donna win a 5000 dollar grant from Intuit, which she used to help fund her Bali expedition.

On Bali last season, Hailey and Sierra Partridge, Jeanette Ortiz, Mary Osborne, and Donna, did a Betty B design trip. Each one of the girls worked with the local artisans who comprise a portion of Donna’s creative team, to produce collection pieces that exemplified themselves as ocean connected women. Each young woman then selected a cause or charity, whereby Betty B would donate a portion of the income from sales of each piece.

Donna’s company is a very active member of yet another organization, which was the brainchild of Ventura’s Chouinard family (Patagonia), which is called One Percent for the Planet. Through One Percent, Donna and other companies support David Booth’s fantastic Organization, the East Bali Poverty Project, which literally is changing the face of Bali, by educating the youth on their connection to the environment via the Arts and cultural action.

So with our country on the ropes, it all starts here. With me. With you. In our own back yard.

The answer is right there in your community: your dollars are a part of your voice. Now do something. Do it for yourself. Do it for your town. But more importantly: do it. By acting locally you affect Globally, as well as Nationally. Do it.

Visit David’s Blog to read more and, of course, see all the PICTURES!

What We Do.

David Pu’u is, as you probably already know, a very gifted photographer of beautiful things. He and I are both blessed to work with some amazing people, including twins Hailey and Sierra Partridge. Here is his most recent blog about what that means…

Model Models

by David Pu’u

Recently, NYC based production company Silent Crow was in Ventura. Two writers with the company happened to have connected with Donna Von Hoesslin of Betty B and learning a little bit about her female inspired Eco Fashion line. They came up with an idea.

Producer Matt Bennett showed up to do a little bit of discovery work, and honed a reality show concept that deviated from the norm, in that it endeavors to look at the personalities and lives of the women in both my and Donna’s lives. Silent Crow named the show Bonafide.

Donna and I have long exchanged working relationships with people who we see as unique, and able to be involved in both the editorial market, and branding process, both for the model as a product, and for Betty B’s unique, ethics based, fashion accessories line.

What Matt discovered is that each one of these women is a story unto themselves. Tricky thing to formulate a show upon. I just saw the teaser reel that Silent Crow Produced, and that I contributed footage and stills to. I think they get it. Not an easy thing to do, getting something that is a world unto itself… (continue reading and see more gorgeous shots)