ARTIST STATEMENT: Yugen Handmade

The word yūgen has origins in Japanese culture and has no exact English translation. But in short, it means "our awareness of our existence in the Universe that brings on feelings so profound that we cannot express them." This encompasses our vision in so many ways. We do our work humbled by the Universe every day - the beauty and expanse, the unknown and the known, the big and the small, the abstract and the very precise, the things we cannot comprehend and the things we know and understand so intimately that it makes life worth living. The people, the places, the experiences, the Planet, the Universe - the big, the small, it all adds up to yūgen. All of our items are handcrafted to order.

We always try to keep philanthropy in our philosophy here at Yugen. This year, we've donated items to local fundraising auctions to help children with incarcerated parents, to help homeless students, and other similar initiatives. In addition, we did a fundraiser in January to help with the NSW efforts with the wildfires in Australia, and over the summer we donated to the Baltimore Action Legal Team help those participating in the Black Lives Matter movement and being detained for seeking justice. A portion of our sales through partners also gets donated to the ever fabulous The Planetary Society to help fund space research and education! (Much of our jewelry is made of meteorites!)