Mimosa Handcrafted expands Eugene Street store with The Curio

First launched 18 years ago as the side hustle of a landscape architect, Mimosa Handcrafted has grown to become a beloved artisan jewelry brand in Louisiana and across the country.

Last week, the company unveiled the expansion of its Eugene Street retail store with a new room called The Curio, which showcases jewelry by fellow artisan jewelers along with one-of-a-kind pieces by Mimosa that complement its current collections.

“We knew we wanted to expand the space,” says founder and designer Madeline Ellis. “And bringing in other artists makes it a little more fun.”

Madeline began making hand-carved cast jewelry in 2008. By 2015, the popularity of the pieces—many of them reflective of Southern flora and fauna and imbued with poignant messaging—had encouraged her to leave behind landscape architecture and focus on jewelry full time. Her landscape architect husband, Dawson, also joined her in the business that year. Within a few months, they’d hired their first full-time employee. Today, the company employs 12 full-time and 6 part-time workers and sells jewelry to nationwide through e-commerce and a wide network of retail partners.

To create The Curio, the Ellises captured adjacent space that was formerly occupied by neighbor Red Stick Reads. The bookshop relocated last year to another Mid City location. Madeline says the additional square footage gave Mimosa a chance to create a moody counterpoint to its bright and airy retail room.

“It was kind of like, ‘How can we push it to be something that would be related to Mimosa, but where we could also explore things we haven’t explored yet under the Mimosa umbrella?'” she says.

Nearly every inch of The Curio has been thoughtfully designed, from its azure floor tiles and cypress shelves and cabinetry to a new line of drawer knobs featuring Mimosa’s familiar iconography.

Cases hold meticulously displayed works by handcrafted jewelers from Louisiana and beyond, along with vintage pieces.

“I’ve always loved vintage everything, but especially jewelry, and so a lot of it was ‘What do I wear?’” she says. “I wear a mix of my jewelry and other artists and vintage pieces and bespoke pieces, so it was like looking for all the things that go really well with Mimosa and also lifting up our friends and fellow artists.”

The room holds work by local artists including Catherine Rouchon, whose Compass Rose line includes whimsical puzzle box pendants made with quartz she cuts herself. Some of the pieces also use Louisiana opal. Another featured maker is Ashley Ferguson, a biologist now exploring artistic endeavors through her business Roots Floral Preservation. Ferguson’s pieces use pressed native plants preserved in resin.

Work by longtime local artisan jeweler Tom Lorio is also on display, along with Jonathan McKinney, an Albuquerque-based turquoise artist from whom the Ellises have sourced their turquoise.

The room also features one-of-a-kind pieces made by Mimosa featuring gemstones, a line of work the company has expanded alongside its use of bronze, gold and silver.

While the small Mid City store is Mimosa’s local retail hub, production for the company takes place on Cloverland Avenue. The Ellises started using the Cloverland space last year, another sign that the company, which began as a simple creative outlet for Madeline, continues to expand. The workshop gives the Mimosa team more room to cut stones and to cast as many as 1,500 items a week.

Mimosa is known for its hundreds of varying but recognizable designs, which range from pelicans and turtles to rivers and sunsets. A new collection is expected to drop today. The shop is located at 541 S. Eugene St.