There’s a pretty neat artisan boutique on Hertel that is worth a visit this holiday season. The shop is owned by Emily Sajban who is an artisan herself, primarily making jewelry but she also dabbles in ceramics, embroidery, among others. 85% of the jewelry featured in Bon Fire Craft is made by Emily herself. But she also features the work of three other jewelry makers. Emily stocks hand made artisan wares from talented people in Buffalo and throughout the country. Items range from knitted American bison creature art to artistic wood wall hangings.
Talking to Emily is like talking to a jewelry scientist. When she was describing some of the metalsmithing processes that she incorporates into her work, I had a hard time keeping up with her. She began to rattle off about ‘copper electro forming’, a process that begins with any organic material, which then gets treated with conductive paint, and finally gets slowly plated with layers of copper around it. “It’s an electrical process,” she told me, before pointing out an item that was made by more traditional means (she could see that my head was beginning to spin). “You see the little lantern necklace right there [pointing]. I made the design out of wax, and then cast it in metal. Then I fabricated the rest of the components.”
The back of Bon Fire Craft is where all of the magic happens. That’s where Emily has her studio. “When there are no customers,” she explained. “I get to work on my jewelry.”
As we talked, Emily pointed out that someone from BRO had written an article about her when she first moved to Buffalo. It took a second, but I suddenly recalled the the article. And I recalled it because I wrote it. At the time, she didn’t have a store on Hertel, though she did say that she was hoping to one day have her own store. What do you know. I ended the article with:
Already I’m a big fan of her styles, and have a feeling that she’s going to have an easy time making a name for herself around Buffalo. I can’t wait to see where she takes all of this, once she truly settles down and begins to figure her way around this city’s art scene.
I’m happy that she figured her way around well enough to open her own artisan boutique in North Buffalo. The works that she carries are either one of a kind or very limited productions. Emily also makes space for guest artists who make pop-up appearances in her store.
If you were wondering, Emily also does custom work for those who just can’t manage to find what they are looking for. Her work is very reasonably priced to boot. Just don’t get on her bad side, or you might end up on the receiving end of a ‘Christmas Coal Necklace’ (lead image) made with black tourmaline and a sterling ‘naughty’ tag!
Bon Fire Craft | 1455 Hertel Avenue | Buffalo, New York | Facebook