Offering sterling silver and gemstone jewelry, as well as a collection of New Hampshire-made crafts and goods, Earthly Elan also offers a space for people to duck in, drink coffee, design and relax.

The store opened Oct. 7, and is the culmination of seven years of owner Ashleigh Nelson traveling to the state’s craft fairs and art shows without a storefront. After working for the Portsmouth-based environmental nonprofit Blue Ocean Society, environmentalism became a pillar of Nelson’s jewelry business. Her goal of making her company sustainable manifests in almost every aspect of her products, from the metals she uses to the packaging her products are sold in. 

“I had such a great experience there as an intern working on whale watch boats, that conservation and the environment really became a very important part of who I am and what I do, and you may not immediately draw the connection between environmentalism and jewelry, but I tried to think of ways that you can just live sustainably without it being too much of a reach,” said Nelson. “So what that means for us is all of my packaging is compostable. I reuse a lot of things that packaging supplies like cardboard boxes or bubble wrap. Almost all of our metals are recycled metals. So all the sterling silver is recycled metal and the scrap from my creations will become recycled metal. So there's almost no waste in terms of metal.”

Nelson also thoroughly vets her gemstone suppliers, making sure they are Fair Trade-certified. Despite ordering from around the world, she is sure to have conversations with representatives before using their products in her jewelry. She also allows other New Hampshire creators to showcase their works in her space. The Earthly Elan storefront, built onto Nelson’s home where she lives with her husband and two cats, displays Nelson’s passion for small and local business. 

“I try to buy from other small businesses and involve other small creators whenever possible, like most of my jewelry findings come from a smallish company that's a family owned company here in the United States. A lot of the products in my store are multiple products that are from other small businesses and artists that I've met through my travels over the years here in New Hampshire and just trying to keep it as as close to home as possible,” said Nelson. “Small business really is something I'm passionate about. So all of those things sort of contribute to keeping the business environmentally friendly, sustainable, not only for communities, but you know, just in everyday business practices for me.”

Nelson began making jewelry as a young girl growing up on Cape Cod, and only seven years ago began to revisit the art form. She is continuing to learn about the metaphysical properties of gemstones as well as new crafting techniques. 

“I'm actually hoping to take a metalsmithing class in the coming weeks, so that I can learn a little bit more about soldering and finishing and polishing. And I think that will be really, really cool to sort of expand that into my subset of skills. And it also I really would love to get some more local folks in here. I have so many ideas and not enough space,” said Nelson. 

With her “crystal apothecary,” where customers can design their own jewelry and drink locally made coffee, Nelson is excited for the holiday season and hopes to return Mason’s welcoming of her business by offering simpler holiday shopping. 

“I'm so grateful for for all the support that I've gotten in this in this journey, you know, not only for the whole seven years that it's taken me to get here but for this enormous massive undertaking, I'm so grateful to my community and to my friends and family and you know, everybody that's helped me out along the way and helps me get the word out. And I can't wait to meet people. I would love to help people with their holiday shopping. And I'm just so excited to see where this for this kind of leads in the future.” said Nelson. 

Earthly Elan, located at 40 Marcel Road in Mason, is open Wednesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and can be found online at earthlyelan.com, as well as on Pintrest, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook.