Elva jpeg
The designer with great-grandmother Elva Fields.

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 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 portion of every online purchase is donated to Backpack Buddies of Spencer County, a program providing school-age children in the company’s local rural community of Taylorsville, Kentucky with healthy meals and snacks each weekend of the academic year. For a little less than $3 per bag, the program offers a backpack full of food for each one of approximately 160 children enrolled in the service, so $3 of each sale on the Elva Fields website will be contributed to the welfare and health of children who depend on the local schools for every meal. For more information on the Backpack Buddies program, please visit their website.

Retail Venues

Various Locations

Alabama

Femme
3607 Old Shell Road
Mobile, AL 36608
251.343.8222

California

Cami
1146 Highland Avenue
Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
310.545.2264
Cami’s website

House of Honey
1518A Mission Street
South Pasadena, CA
626.441.2454
HOH website

Indiana

Excursions
4910 Lincoln Avenue
Evansville, IN 47715
812.962.4850
Excursions website

Kentucky

AJ’s
116 Clay Avenue
Lexington, KY 40508
859.253.1798

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

Excursions
2738 Frederica Street
Owensboro, KY 42301
270.926.8388
Excursions website

Maine

Bliss
58 Exchange Street
Portland, ME 04101
207.879.7125
Bliss website

New Hampshire

Bliss
85 Market Street
Portsmouth, NH 03801
603.431.8285
Bliss website

New York

Albertine
13 Christopher Street
(between Gay Street and Greenwich Avenue)
New York City, NY 10014
212.924.8515

Albertine website

Ohio

Collier West
787 North High Street
Columbus, OH 43215
614.294.9378

Collier West website

South Carolina

Finicky Filly
303 King Street
Charleston, SC 29401
843.534.0203
Finicky Filly website

Mayme Baker Studio
610.C South Main Street
Greenville, SC 29601
864.467.1930
Mayme Baker website

Tennessee

Emmaline
400 Main Street #130
Franklin, TN 37064
615.791.6205
Emmaline website

Virginia

MacLaren Jewelers
4101 Dominion Boulevard
Glen Allen, VA 23060
804.747.1575
MacLaren Jewelers website