About us

Liz McLean Knight was hunched over her soldering iron blissfully imagining the crazy sounds she would unleash at the show at which she was scheduled to perform in just a few short weeks. She picked up a little plastic sequencer toy from Radio Shack earlier in the day called "The DJ Challenge" and was attempting to circuit-bend its output into something completely sonically innovative. After frying its single teeny speaker in an unfortunate experiment, she abandoned the project in a mess of electronic guts on her apartment table while she devised an alternate plan. Weeks went by and Liz eventually found more satisfaction composing electronic music through virtual instruments on her laptop than through manipulating the ohms of resistors. On her way out the door to the aforementioned show, she picked up a few choice electronic bits, quickly twisted them together, and made a necklace.After the show she was greeted not only with commendations on her music, but on her new jewelry. A few people asked her to make more necklaces, and maybe some matching bracelets--and Zelle was born.

Since 2003 Zelle has expanded and improved upon its line of minimal yet elegant designs, appealing to those who desire expression for their inner geek, as well as design enthusiasts and the fashion obsessed. With distinctive packaging for every piece, it's not only visually appealing in a store, but a joy to receive as a gift. Each item is handcrafted by skilled independent artisans with both attention to detail and durability in construction. We know you'll love your jewelry so much that you'll wear it a lot, so we craft it to last. But if your jewelry ever needs repairing, just send it back to us and we'll fix it for you.

Zelle LLC
1608 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Suite 709
Chicago IL 60647 USA

Liz McLean Knight (Lead Designer) [photo]

Liz started college by majoring in computer science and ended it by studing art at California Institute of the Arts, eventually combining the two disciplines into her own jewelry and accessories line. She also runs the Chicago experimental electronic music magazine, Modsquare.com, creates electronic music under the Quantazelle moniker, DJs as Liz Revision, runs the subVariant record label and manages the Fractalspin webstore. She can speak French (poorly) and PHP (well), likes relational databases, the quicksort algorithm, glitchy electronic music (like Aphex Twin, Lusine, Apparat, Matthew Dear, or Akufen), Max/MSP, Nanoloop, Traktor, Reaktor, Cubase, Italian greyhounds, vegetarian Thai food, clothes in black or gray (Diesel, Kitchen Orange, Tsubo, or Geek Boutique, prefereably), laptops in gray or silver, binary watches, Gameboy and c64 emulators for the PC, Sega Dreamcast (especially Rez), and Tony Hawk. She lives in the Wicker Park / Bucktown neighborhood of Chicago with her boyfriend and two dogs. Her blog is here.

Check out Liz's interview with Pixelgirl where she describes her design process.

Where to find Zelle gear

IRL
Occidental, CA: Renga Arts 3605 Main Street, PO Box 780, Occidental, CA 95465-0780
San Fransico, CA: Robotspeak 589 1/2 Haight St., San Francisco CA 94117. (415) 554-1977

Online
US: Fractalspin, Thinkgeek, ShanaLogic.
EU: GetDigital (Germany)
Canada: ZeStuff (Quebec)

Repairs and other issues

Send any pieces that need repairing to ZELLE REPAIRS, 1608 N. Milwaukee Ave., Ste 709, Chicago IL 60647 USA in a padded envelope. Enclose a check, money order, or PayPal payment (sent to zelle at zellestyle dot com) for $5.00 ($8.00 outside the US) to cover return postage. It'll take from 1-2 weeks for us to fix it for you. Make sure your return address is on the envelope too.

FAQ

Q: What does "Zelle" mean?

A: It's derived from Liz's performance name, as the early pieces she designed were referred to as "Quantazelle's jewelry."

Q: Are these recycled electronic components?

A: For the most part, no. We buy almost everything from electronic component distributors so that every piece is consistent, and so we know of what everything is made. A few items are created from recycled or discontinued components, such as the limited edition Microprocessor Necklace.

Q: Why don't you use sterling silver findings or pretty crystal beads along with resistors and capacitors?

A: Because that would totally defeat the idea behind the jewelry--electronic technology as an object of beauty in itself. Using materials that have traditionally been viewed as valuable or "fine" such as silver or gemstones would contradict the idea that the preciousness of the components and what they represent takes centerstage. Besides, silver clashes with components--steel complements it much better.

Q: OMG your site is 404 / broek / down?!

A: Nope, this is how it's supposed to look. It's "conceptual" and stuff.

Apache/1.3.28 Server at www.zellestyle.com Port 80