1. Mind Your Carbon Footprint and Reduce Energy Consumption

Reduce the effects of climate change on the ocean by leaving the car at home when you can and being conscious of your energy use at home and work. A few things you can do to get started today: Switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs, take the stairs, and bundle up or use a fan to avoid oversetting your thermostat.

2. Make safe, Sustainable Seafood Choices

Global fish populations are rapidly being depleted due to demand, loss of habitat, and unsustainable fishing practices. When shopping or dining out, help reduce the demand for overexploited species by choosing seafood that is both healthful and sustainable.

3. Use Fewer Plastic Products

Plastics that end up as ocean debris contribute to habitat destruction and entangle and kill tens of thousands of marine animals each year. To limit your impact, carry a reusable water bottle, store food in nondisposable containers, bring your own cloth tote or other reusable bag when shopping, and recycle whenever possible.

4. Help Take Care of the Beach

Whether you enjoy diving, surfing, or relaxing on the beach, always clean up after yourself. Explore and appreciate the ocean without interfering with wildlife or removing rocks and coral. Go even further by encouraging others to respect the marine environment or by participating in local beach cleanups.

5. Don't Purchase Items That Exploit Marine Life

Certain products contribute to the harming of fragile coral reefs and marine populations. Avoid purchasing items such as coral jewelry, tortoiseshell hair accessories (made from hawksbill turtles), and shark products.

6. Be an Ocean-Friendly Pet Owner

Read pet food labels and consider seafood sustainability when choosing a diet for your pet. Never flush cat litter, which can contain pathogens harmful to marine life. Avoid stocking your aquarium with wild-caught saltwater fish, and never release any aquarium fish into the ocean or other bodies of water, a practice that can introduce non-native species harmful to the existing ecosystem.

8. Influence Change in Your Community

Research the ocean policies of public officials before you vote or contact your local representatives to let them know you support marine conservation projects. Consider patronizing restaurants and grocery stores that offer only sustainable seafood, and speak up about your concerns if you spot a threatened species on the menu or at the seafood counter.

7. Support Organizations Working to Protect the Ocean

Many institutes and organizations are fighting to protect ocean habitats and marine wildlife. Find a national organization and consider giving financial support or volunteering for hands-on work or advocacy. If you live near the coast, join up with a local branch or group and get involved in projects close to home.

9. Travel the Ocean Responsibly

Practice responsible boating, kayaking, and other recreational activities on the water. Never throw anything overboard, and be aware of marine life in the waters around you. If you’re set on taking a cruise for your next vacation, do some research to find the most eco-friendly option.

10. Educate Yourself About Oceans and Marine Life

All life on Earth is connected to the ocean and its inhabitants. The more you learn about the issues facing this vital system, the more you’ll want to help ensure its health—then share that knowledge to educate and inspire others.

Pag is an island on the Adriatic coast of Croatia. It's most famous for its stony landscape and salt fields. Weird and beautiful with hot sun and strong wind called "Bura" - this is where my family's from. Traditionally women sew with needle and thin thread a special kind of lace. My grandma taught me how to do it while she was still alive. The lace has a special kind of pattern and exotic look that has always inspired me in design.

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I use a power of salty seawater and electric current to cut into the metal...erode it...destroy it...all the while keeping the lace pattern shiny and bright. The beauty in this jewelry is best seen live as it's a play of shadow and light embraced by the texture or the surface. It shines like summer sun and the lace lines remind me of the sun pattern that shines through the water to the sandy seafloor.

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This organic process and a ton of handcrafting ensure all the pieces to be truly unique...even is the designs are repeated!

Materials I use are high grade and ethically sourced.

The whole process is eco-friendly and sustainable as it uses the same liquid over and over again with very little waste.

Inspired by the need to express the love for this special island I call my "happy place" and a vision of universally beautiful jewelry in which urban life and nature come together with streamlined simplicity - I created this collection.

S.M.

Handcrafted products can offer higher quality and more attention to detail – but they can give buyers some surprising side benefits as well.

1. Handcrafted Products Are Green.

Work done by hand takes less energy than a mass production assembly line, which makes it more environmentally sustainable. This is particularly true if the commercial good is produced overseas and needs to be shipped a very long distance to reach the consumer.

2. Handcrafted Products Are Good for the Job Market.

Another reason you should feel good about spending your money on hand-crafted products? Doing so creates jobs. One study found that shifting just 10 percent of consumer spending in a particular area to locally owned businesses would create hundreds of new jobs and millions of dollars in local wages.

3. Handcrafted Products Are Worth More.

A number of experiments have shown that people value an object more highly when they are led to believe it contains an “air of authenticity,” for example, if they were told it was a work of art. This means that artisan products, be they jewelry or jam, are perceived to have more value in society.

4. Handcrafted Products Are Also Just Better.

It’s not just an amorphous air of authenticity that causes people to shell out more for handcrafted products. Handcrafted goods are often just better. A study of coffee found that 47 percent of respondents said it tastes better when prepared by hand compared to just 11 percent who are happy to settle for machine-produced drinks.

5. Handcrafted Products Make You Feel Good About Your Purchases.

And if you’re like most Americans, that’s something you prioritize. A 2012 survey found that 87 percent of American consumers felt that businesses should place at least as much weight on society's interests as they do on business interests. Supporting local artisans and their eco-conscious business practices certainly fits the bill.

6. Handcrafted Products Help Communities.

Studies have shown that locally owned independent businesses —many of which sell wares produced by hand— return a higher percentage of their revenue to their communities than chains. That means the people who make money off sales at independent businesses, owners and employees, are more likely to spend their salary at places in the same area where they work.

7. Handcrafted Products Can Meet Your Needs Better.

Often with handmade goods, you have the option of customizing your purchase. Because you’re often dealing directly with the artisans when you purchase handcrafted products, they might be open to tweaking certain aspects of the product specifically to fit your needs.

8. Handcrafted Products Offer a Fuller Experience.

A study researching cheeses in Vermont found that consumers prefer buying “artisan” cheese because they feel it provides a fuller “sensory experience.” This is a factor of both intrinsic properties, like better taste, and extrinsic properties, like the joy of finding something you really love. Even just the knowledge that a product was handcrafted contributed to the feeling of a better experience because there is a relatable, knowable back-story.

9. Handcrafted Products Are Easier to Buy and More Popular Than Ever.

The Internet is packed with a burgeoning industry of handmade marketplaces – more and more people are embracing handcrafted goods. Buying handmade goods online allows you access to the skills of artisans around the world.

10. Handcrafted Products Are Unique.

One of the most prevalent, although least quantifiable, reasons people report for choosing to purchase handcrafted goods is that they just like having something that didn’t come from a big company. The nature of handmade goods means that there are fewer of them, so whatever you’re wearing or eating or adding to your home is as unique as you are.

11. Handcrafted Products Support a Tradition of Skilled Work.

We’ve seen that supporting your local artisan is good for the community, but it’s also good for the art. As technology makes it possible to replace skilled workers with machines it’s important to keep hand-making goods a financially feasible career choice.

Lace is the ultimate achievement in textile art, an individual work of human hands made from flax, cotton, silk, agave, silver and gold threads. Its roots, as opposed to embroidery which comes from the East, are clearly in the West. The material is caught, by thread, into a small, firm construction and the architecture of air is created. The lace-maker works like a spider, interlacing the most imaginative stitches, the only difference being in that work lasts, while cobwebs may be destroyed by the wind.

It is interesting that in 1939 Pag lacemakers participated at the world exhibition in New York. The Pag lace-making school existed back at the beginning of the century and the person who deserves credit for the preservation of Pag lace-making is Austrian Natalie Bruck-Auffenberg. In 1911, she wrote a wonderful book Dalmatia and its Folk Art. She searched for the lost Dubrovnik lace all along the Dalmatian coast and, visiting the islands, discovered Pag lace. She bought Pag lace for herself, for exhibitions in Paris and an Austrian museum, and for the Archduchess Maria Josephine, Otto von Habsburg's grandmother. 

Only a few days after receiving the first lacy blouse from Pag, Maria Josephine arrived in the town. She was the first person to make an order to the old Pag lacemaking school. The orders from Emperor Ferdinand and the Romanian queen, Carmen Sylva, soon followed.  The same lace that was prized by emperors is still made today. The new lace- making school is led by Pag natives Neda Oroz and Urica Orlic. The production of lace, called teg by Pag women, is very painstaking work usually done with an ordinary mending needle. A solid background is necessary for making lace; usually a firm lace-maker s pillow. It is made without a draft or plan, which makes each piece of lace unique. Pag s lace-makers say that not even a computer could repeat the pattern they create each time.

First the circle is defined within which little holes are made several millimeters apart, and then thread is pulled through them. This is how the base for Pag lace is made it consists of eight thread sticks which are spread diagonally across the circle. When the base is ready, small circles and triangles (mendulice) are made from the center. When lace is created, it is firm, as though it has been starched. Pag lace, unlike the other well-known Dubrovnik and Lepoglava laces, can be washed without losing its firmness. Of course, Pag lace is expensive and is, for this reason, called white gold.