Ann-Made, Handcrafted, Eco-Friendly Bracelet Review and Giveaway

The next time you open up a can of soda, take a look at the soda can tab.
What do you see? I see a piece of aluminum that's only purpose is to help me open up a can. Period.

If you are Ann Skydell Harmon, of Ann-Made Art (Ann-Made LLC) you would see that soda tab's potential as a beautiful resource for handcrafted jewelry. The "Sweet Birch" bracelet shown below is hand-crafted using 22 soda can tabs along with elastic, wire-wrapping and a sea green glass bead with wood accent beads. Thank you Ann for sending me The Sweet Birch bracelet for this review.



From: Annmadeart.com (Ann-Made, LLC) The vision and passion behind Ann-Made's line of jewelry is Ann Skydell Harmon, a special education art teacher. She set out to design a unique and chic product to promote recycling, as well as to show that a business can "do good" for society and the planet in all aspects of its operation.

Ann-Made jewelry is Ann's unique creation made from recycled soda can tabs to remind us that a little creativity can put many discarded materials to new use. The bracelets were the first item in the line and were originally conceived as a project for her alternative school art students.

The popularity of the bracelets were immediately apparent as Ann, her daughters, and fellow teachers received numerous enthusiastic comments each time they wore theirs. Earrings and Pendants have now joined the bracelets in this unique line of jewelry.



The Review: The Sweet Birch Bracelet was nicely packaged as shown above. This bracelet is handcrafted from 22 recycled soda can tabs. Each tab is hand-selected, washed and polished and then woven into a one-size fits most design using either silver or gold elastic. I have a large wrist and the bracelet fits nicely, not too tight. I do wear green (note my green shirt) and tend to wear silver jewelry, so the color choices suit me perfectly.

I don't usually think about jewelry as making much of a statement, however, wearing this bracelet makes a variety of statements regarding creativity, resourcefulness, consciousness, uniqueness and it is a "beautiful conversation piece."

As past reviews on this blog indicate, I am fond of products made from recycled materials such as Rebagging It's recycled juice bag totes, the Up With Paper pop-up greeting cards, and the Say it With Vases, plastic reusable vases made from recycled materials. Going Green is the wave of the future and Ann-Made Art is along for the ride!

The recycled tabs Ann uses are purchased from a non-profit group in New Jersey dedicated to teaching students of all ages the importance of recycling. A portion of each sale is donated to environmental causes. I appreciate that Ann "set out to show that businesses have the power to 'do good' for society and the planet in all aspects of their operations."

Now, when I pop open my diet soda, that little tab will remind me of my Ann-Made bracelet, and how that one piece of aluminum has evolved into an eco-friendly jewelry with a global-sized cause.

Buy It: The Sweet Birch Ann-Made Bracelet is available on www.annmadeart.com for $18.50.

Win It: Win your own Ann-Made eco-friendly Bracelet right here! To enter is easy- just one mandatory entry.

Mandatory Entry: Please visit the Ann-Made, LLC website and check out all of the bracelets and comment on which one you like best. Please leave your e-mail address in your comment.

Extra Entries:

Additional optional entries: Eligible after completing mandatory entry above: You can do any or all of the following for one entry each. Please leave a separate comment for each that you have done.

2. --Follow my blog (see the right side bar to sign up) Already a follower, just leave a comment saying that you are a follower.

3. --Subscribe to my blog (see the right side bar to sign up) Current subscribers are eligible too.

4.--Follow me on Twitter . Current followers are eligible too, just leave a comment saying that you are a twitter follower.

5.--Tweet about this giveaway and leave a link to your tweet (Can tweet once daily).

6.--Post my button on your blog and leave a link to your blog.

--FOR 5 EXTRA ENTRIES - Write a blog post about this giveaway, with a link to my blog. Come back and leave the link to your blog post. Post FIVE separate comments that you've blogged about this.

Giveaway ends on April 1st at 11:59 PM EST. Open to US addresses only. Winner will be chosen by random.org and contacted by email. Please respond in 48 hours or a new winner will be chosen. To be fair to everyone, comments not meeting requirements will be deleted.

Many thanks to Ann for the review and giveaway bracelets!

The product(s) featured in this review were provided free of cost to me by the author, the manufacturer, or representing PR agency. Opinions expressed are my own and are NOT influenced by monetary compensation.