About Us
Elfried Somberg & Thomas Harp
Unusual Earrings
1214 Barbara Dr
Vista, CA 92084
After a false start in hotel management Elfried started her business in 1987. She is mainly self taught and jewelry making came relatively easy. An invention of an acquaintance who needed help in manufacturing her earrings set her on her way. Thomas joined full time in 2007.
The Illuzio earrings have been the main stay of the business all along. Perfect for the pierce-challenged among us, they are comfortable and fun to wear without having to worry about (most) allergies, ripped piercings, keloids and of course simply not having pierced ears. They are conversation pieces. And once a customer knows how to quickly put them on and take them off she'll most likely be demonstrating this to the uninitiated with a big smile on her face.
Next came various smaller ear cuffs to which we're still adding. Many of these are hand made while we send some of them out to have cast.
The threader earrings were added at a later date and the fun here is in wearing them in many more and different ways then those who are familiar with them would ordinarily consider. Light and airy they look good from all angles and are great while answering the phone or laying your head to rest.
Together we make our earrings in-house from scratch and take them on the road to several Arts & Crafts shows in California, Arizona, Nevada, Washington. For those of you who aren't too familiar with this type of event we can highly recommend checking some of them out. You can find a list of our shows under the 'shows' tab. We drive to all of our shows and in most cases are assigned a 10' x 10' piece of grass, cement, asphalt or dirt where we set up our tent and booth so we can welcome our customers in a friendly environment close to where they live or travel. It can get quite lively there as we do our demonstrating, and return customers help newcomers understand the concepts involved. Many a time we are able to fit someone new with their first pair of earrings in years. No way had she started out that morning thinking she would look for a new pair of earrings today. Chances are it will be her first pair of many.
Whenever we can we like to travel with our dogs so when you find us at a grassy show in the shade you may want to peak behind the counter to see if any 4-footers are present.