The intri­cately crafted bracelets above were hand worked by the met­al­smiths of Laos. As you can see from the image above, the pat­terns in these pieces have a lot in com­mon with the ornate gold dec­o­ra­tion of the tem­ples and shrines that dot the pic­turesque land­scape. This type of jew­elry, which was orig­i­nally cre­ated as adorn­ment and metal wares for roy­alty exclu­sively, is offered for sale by www.orijyn.com. A por­tion of the pur­chase price goes directly to these arti­sans as well as PADETC, a char­i­ta­ble and mostly vol­un­teer orga­ni­za­tion that teaches finan­cial and edu­ca­tional self-sufficiency to the young, impov­er­ished population.

These charm-ing pen­dants by Heather Moore were made using recy­cled met­als. Each item can be per­son­al­ized and Moore’s range includes cuff links which have a great non-gender-specific qual­ity (I like to wear them with my french-cuff shirts). I also like the matte fin­ish which blends well when you are wear­ing other types of jewelry.