Ideal Bite

Setting your sights on the gold metal this V-day? You're a winner (no, really): Chicago fine jewelry designer Ellie Thompson uses reclaimed precious metals and fair-trade gems to create striking, architectural rings, necklaces, bracelets, and earrings. (We especially heart her contemporary Time and Space Collection.) Instead of using freshly mined materials (which creates literally tons of mine waste), Ellie's gold comes from refiners who take sweepings from manufacturing shops, old broken jewelry, and bits from discarded electronics, then return it to its pure state with alloy metals like silver and copper separated out. The result costs the same as the conventional gold...and shines like a champ.