Today marks Dune Jewelry’s 13th anniversary and our founder Holly Daniel Christensen’s birthday! It’s been a great journey for Dune and for Holly, so to commemorate this wonderful milestone, we wanted to take a little trip down memory lane and revisit some of the most memorable moments in Dune Jewelry’s lifetime! 

2007: 

The year of conception…Holly was helping make Beach Sand Snowflakes at her kitchen table and saw the reaction people had to their favorite places, so they decided to make jewelry as a more elevated concept to the ornaments. Holly started taking jewelry-making classes in Norwood and began to come to the realization that her passion for travel, jewelry-making, and business should be explored! 

2010:

The year of our birth! On September 28th, 2008, Dune Jewelry was officially launched! One of our first designs, the Luxe Dune Bar and Island design was created and Holly began to travel around Cape Cod to craft fairs and sell Dune Jewelry all across the Cape! 

2011: 

The year of business! Dune’s Sandbank starts expanding, we amassed over 300 sands in this initial year! With help from Independent Sales Rep Paula Mullen, Dune started its Wholesale business and was found in gift stores all over Cape Cod. 

2012:

The year of upgrades! We officially moved out of Holly’s house and into our first studio in Hyde Park, Mass. This year was huge for us! We added Sandbeads to our designs (fun fact: these were originally called Sandora Beads and we considered a cease and desist from Pandora – our first claim to notoriety!) and added Fenway Park Infield Dirt to our Sandbank, the first non-beach sand element! Lastly, we wrapped up the year with a feature in WCVB’s Chronicle! 

2013: 

The year we start giving back! We created designs exclusively to give back to Home Base, the official Red Sox Foundations dedicated to take care of our Veterans. Dune was featured in Coastal Living Magazine and we saw our baby business grow like crazy, with over 1,000 sands in our Sandbank, our pieces being sold in 90 retail locations, and over 12,000 Sandbeads sold!

2014: 

The year of expansion! Dune started selling internationally, with 200 locations in the U.S., Canada, and the Caribbean. Holly designed the Bayview ring (still one of our bestsellers!) and a Men’s Collection with Cufflinks and Tie Bars. We expanded our charitable donations by partnering with Hope for Ariang, an organization which builds schools in South Sudan (you can see bricks from those schools in our Sandbank!). And we found ourselves in the press! Dune was featured in Women’s Surf Style Magazine, as well as exhibited in the Surf Expo in Florida! 

2015:

The year of partnerships! Holly appeared on EXTRA with Mario Lopez, partnered with Bella Magazine, and model and actress Camille Kostek worked with Dune for the first time on a catalog shoot! This whirlwind year had Dune branching out even further; one of our Sand Artists, Lauren, toured the Eastern Seaboard all the way from Massachusetts to Florida on a Trunk Show Tour and visited 16 retail partners. Finally, the iconic Wave Collection sprang into existence and continues to be one of our best-sellers!

2016: 

The year of collaboration! We came together with five (yes, five!) designers, non-profits, and retailers in this year alone to help expand Dune, including Camille Kostek, the Paper Store, and the non-profit SMILEMass which helps raise funds for submersible beach wheelchairs on public beaches in New England! Holly was rewarded for all of her hard work with the 2016 Small Business of the Year, Woman-Owned Award from the Small Business Association! 

2017: 

The year of new materials! While we love our tried and true designs and the classic beach sands look, this year we switched it up and started accepting elements as well as sands for our Sandbank. We introduced Powerstones (semi-precious stones like Turquoise, Lapis, and Peridot), and Holly designed the Larimar Collection, initially called “Blue by Dune Jewelry”. This year Holly also trademarked “Experiential Jewelry™” – a handcrafted object made of earth elements relating to or derived from an experience, and often worn for adornment – because that’s what we do here at Dune! 

2018: 

The year of (more) expansion! Surprise, surprise, we spent this year spreading our business to even more retailers and collaborators, and we even got a larger studio in the process! Some of the highlights included Camille Kostek launching her first collection with us, Holly collaborating with Actress Jenny Garth on the Traveling Heart Collection, and the accidental creation of our Gradient Technique (a Sand Artist misread an order and from this happy accident emerged our best-selling Gradient designs!). 

2019: 

The year of new launches! We launched four new collections this year, including Camille Kostek’s second collaboration and the Reach for the Stars Collection with rising pop star Nicole Michelle. Yet as fabulous as those collections were, our other two collections were quite special. First we collaborated with Touch the World and introduced 12 string bracelets that gave back to various important causes with each purchase. Then secondly, we announced the In Memoriam Collection and began working with cremains from lost loved ones so their memories can live on forever. 

2020: 

Celebrating 10 years of us! Although the world shut down because of COVID-19, we didn’t let that stop us and we spent our 10th year of business adapting to the new normal! Holly and Lauren started “Kitchen Table Talks” where they interviewed small business owners and connected directly with their followers. Lauren also began virtual shopping appointments, as a Sand Stylist, she helped customers pick out their designs and elements online! And lastly, Dune Jewelry encouraged all our customers to shop online and support their local small businesses throughout the pandemic. 

2021: 

The year of Moonstone (and other things)! This year we launched two Moon inspired collections, Camille Kostek’s Moonstone Collection and a collaboration with Moonglow Jewelry on exclusive bracelets featuring your selected sand or earth element and moon phase. Way out by the ocean in Cape Cod, Dune opened a boutique in Harwich Port! And last but not least, our charitable donations reached $170,000 and we launched another collection, The World is Yours Bracelets, to continue giving back to Friends of the Earth. 

2022: 

The year of travel! In 2022, our Collectible Travel Treasures™ collection, featuring charms created with Certified Recycled .925 Sterling Silver & 14k Gold Vermeil that represent your different experiences, was born! We also partnered with Infinity Jewelry to open their first experiential boutique in Ketchikan, Alaska, as well as expanded our homebase in Norwood, Massachusetts. Our global reach didn’t end there; this year we also launched our 4ocean collection, where we use their certified recycled plastics in Dune’s designs to raise money to pull even more plastic from our oceans! 

2023: 

The year of features! In our 13th anniversary year, we have been featured in Oprah Daily, on HSN and our jewelry is carried on 13 cruise ships via Starboard! We also opened our first ever retail Gift Boutique in front of our jewelry manufacturing studio. And we are extremely proud to announce that we have donated over $250,000 to various coastal and global causes over the years and we cannot wait to keep giving back to the earth we love so much!

To cap off the day, we want to share with you a special message from our CEO (she thanks you for the birthday wishes too).

“It’s been 13 incredible years of making memories together and personalizing your jewelry – wow! Sometimes it feels like yesterday when I was sitting at my kitchen table dreaming up new designs and wondering how to add more elements to our Sandbank. Here we are today with over 5,000 unique sands and earth elements from around the globe that we can add to your designs…and of course, you’re always welcome to send your own. We strive every day to make sure our customers are the happiest! Dune is 13 years old & there is so much positivity & growth on the horizon – it excites me every day. 

To celebrate this huge milestone, we will offer an exclusive and unique daily gift with every purchase of $100+ September 25-30. I hope you love all the surprises we’ll be offering up and cheers to the next 13 years of making memories together!”

With love and gratitude,

Holly Daniels Christensen
Holly  Daniels Christensen
Founder & CEO, Travel Lover, Sand Connoisseur