A local jeweler crafted earrings as gifts for dozens of celebrities who walked the red carpet at the Academy Awards Sunday.
Hollywood Baskets, a new California-based company, chose to put earrings made by Dawn Rhodes, owner of Shades Jewelry in Athens, in its gift baskets for celebrities.
Oprah Winfrey, Sandra Bullock, Susan Sarandon, Mo'Nique, Ryan Seacrest, Jamie Foxx, Morgan Freeman and many more celebrities received Rhodes' jewelry upon arriving at the Four Seasons Hotel in Hollywood before the 82nd Annual Academy Awards.
Rhodes designs and creates earrings, necklaces and bracelets out of glass and precious stones and metals. She sells her jewelry at ZONEZ on 306 W. Union St. and online at Etsy.com, an artisan Web site.
I try to use stones that are unique and different so each piece is different and one-of-a-kind
Rhodes said.
Hollywood Baskets' owner, Lisa Gal, chose Shades Jewelry because of Rhodes' unique designs and because she wanted to support small-scale businesses.
We absolutely love their items Gal said. We thought it would be a nice thing to get companies that might not normally be able to get their items to the celebrities. She sent a piece and we thought it was fantastic
so we asked her (to donate).
Local longtime Shades customer Valerie Roth said she appreciates Rhodes' willingness to tailor her pieces for her customers.
She genuinely wants you to be happy
and sometimes you don't find that as customers anymore
Roth said.
Rhodes said she was shocked when she found out about all of the stars that had received her jewelry.
It's a chance of a lifetime
she said. I thought maybe one person who might have a name (would receive my jewelry). I have proof that these stars did receive this stuff
that they thought it was worthy enough for that.
Rhodes has prior experience working with Hollywood stars. She has also furnished pieces for celebrity gift bags for the world movie premiere of Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All By Myself and the MTV Video Music Awards.
She makes the jewelry as a hobby and gives some of the proceeds to The American Cancer Society and various other charities, Rhodes said. She said she aims to keep the jewelry at an affordable price, at $5 to $30 per piece.
It's a hobby that pays for itself and allows me to give to charity
she said.
- Gail Burkhardt contributed to this report.
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