About Us
With degrees from Hollins University (Roanoke, Virginia) in both French and Art History, owner/designer Emily Wheat Maynard quickly discovered a passion for the history of jewelry in her graduate work at The Bard Graduate Center for Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture in New York City. Her Masters thesis explored the relationship between Italian Renaissance and ancient Greek and Roman jewelry, which inspired a semester at the Jewelry Arts Institute in Manhattan. Here, she acquired metalworking skills in the ancient tradition and, simultaneously, a recognition that it might be possible to combine interests in the study of jewelry and the creation of it.
Elva Fields Jewelry, started in 2003, is the result of this dual fascination, indulging both the academic and artistic facets within the designer. Emily scours local and far-flung markets, auctions, and shops for unusual vintage and antique pieces to use in all three of the Elva Fields lines—Elva, June, and Deb—which are named for the artist’s great-grandmother, grandmother, and mother, respectively. The treasured finds are then reconfigured and incorporated in unexpected, timeless designs. One might find a strand of old paste pearls with an antique carved ivory brooch as its pendant, or a 1930s Bakelite belt buckle clasping glittering chains from just a decade later. Elva Fields Jewelry, made in the designer’s home studio in Kentucky, can be found in boutiques throughout the United States.
In the spirit of the women who inspired Elva Fields Jewelry and its namesake lines, a percentage of all jewelry proceeds will be donated to selected non-profit agencies, including the Younger Woman’s Club of Louisville, the Chez Panisse Foundation, and Susan G. Komen for the Cure.
Younger Woman’s Club website
Chez Panisse Foundation website
Susan G. Komen website
Retail Venues
Alabama
Sadie’s
5 North Church Street
Fairhope, AL 36532
251.929.3222
Sadie’s website
California
Cami
1146 Highland Avenue
Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
310.545.2264
Indiana
Excursions
4910 Lincoln Avenue
Evansville, IN 47715
812.962.4850
Excursions website
Kentucky
Junior’s General Store
219 South Fourth Street
Danville, KY 404022
859.936.5522
Junior’s website
AJ’s
(earrings from our June collection)
116 Clay Avenue
Lexington, KY 40502
859.253.1798
ILO
(hosts seasonal trunk shows)
867 E. High Street
Lexington, KY 40502
859.233.9778
ILO website
21c Museum Hotel Shop
700 West Main Street
Louisville, KY 40202
502.217.6300
21c website
Clodhoppers
3745 Lexington Road
Louisville, KY 40207
502.891.0079
Clodhoppers website
Shop at The Brown
The Brown Hotel
335 West Broadway
Louisville, KY 40202
502.583.1234
The Brown website
Excursions
2738 Frederica Street
Owensboro, KY 42301
270.926.8388
Excursions website
New York
Albertine
13 Christopher Street
(between Gay Street and Greenwich Avenue)
New York City, NY 10014
212.924.8515
Leontine
226 Front Street
(between Beekman Street and Peck Slip)
New York City, NY 10038
212.766.1066
Albertine and Leontine website
South Carolina
Finicky Filly
303 King Street
Charleston, SC 29401
843.534.0203
Finicky Filly website
Tennessee
Emmaline
400 Main Street #130
Franklin, TN 37064
615.791.6205
Emmaline website