Yes & Yes Designs is one of a kind jewelry made from recycled books. Based in Oakland, CA, designer and founder Laura Bruland laser cuts and assembles the jewelry herself, with the help of her partner, Julien Shields.

Our process begins with hunting down books. Thousands of them are thrown away each year in the Bay Area alone. We find unwanted, falling apart, or outdated books and give them a new life. Using books as a material helps to create products that are exciting and unexpected. Delicate embossing, fabric weaves and fragments of colorful patterns make each piece unique. Old textbooks, falling apart children’s books, and Reader’s Digest Condensed Books are our favorites, though any hardcover book with interesting colors or patterns will do. Yes, we judge a book by its cover. We do draw the line at using beautiful vintage books- if it’s beautiful and special already, why cut it up? Because our materials are so unusual, it really does feel like a collaboration: we provide the shapes and designs, but each book provides the color, personality, and story, so to speak. Vintage imagery and bold, simple shapes define our style- our goal is to let the material speak for itself as much as possible.

Laura Bruland began Yes & Yes Designs in 2008 by experimenting with a wide range of materials, including a formidable collection of wool felt that she inherited from her grandmother. In the beginning of 2010 she joined Techshop and started playing around with laser cutting. Constantly on the hunt for exciting materials to repurpose, and being a natural bibliophile, it didn’t take her long to cut into her first book. She’s been hooked ever since! In 2012 Yes & Yes Designs launched a kickstarter for a laser cutter, which was successfully funded. Now Laura designs and produces her jewelry out of her own studio in Oakland, CA. Since then, Yes & Yes Designs has been featured in San Francisco Magazine, TechCrunch, MAKE Magazine, Readymade, the San Francisco Chronicle and more.

Yes & Yes Designs can now be seen here on Storenvy, as well as in stores throughout the US. If you live in California, you might even find Laura and Julien, and their handy assistant, Toto the wonder-dog, at a craft fair near you.