MBHS grad's Toomer's jewelry to be sold at A-Day

Special jewelry made from the Toomer’s Corner oak trees in Auburn will be for sale at A-Day on Saturday thanks to the artistry of a Mountain Brook native.

Andrea Buchanan Marty, a 1989 Mountain Brook High School graduate, was selected by The Oaks Committee to create pieces to be sold exclusively through Auburn’s bookstore.

“It is amazing to see Andrea take a tree limb from a dead tree and create an exciting piece of jewelry,” said Andrea’s mom, Judy Buchanan, who still lives in Mountain Brook.

A longtime painter and 1994 graduate of Auburn’s fine arts department, Marty had started painting wooden pieces to create jewelry after her second child was born. She was looking to paint something smaller and easier to do on a kitchen table. When news came of the Toomer’s trees’ destruction a few years ago, her husband encouraged her to contact Auburn about using the trees to make commemorative jewelry. She reached out to her ceramics professor, now the chair of the art department, Gary Wagoner, and eventually Marty began her line.

Using oak pieces shipped to her from Auburn, Marty cut the them to size and painted them orange and blue hues specified by the university. From there, she sanded them down to reveal more of the natural grain and coated them with a high gloss resin to make them shine. All the pieces were finished off with a stamp of the official Auburn Oaks logo.

Three-pieced necklaces and key chains are in the final collection. Marty originally created more pieces that student focus groups narrowed down to those selections. They run from $25-50. At A Day, 100 pieces will be for sale, and Marty hopes that they will sell out and the university will commission more.

Marty said she is proud to a part of a project involving Wagoner and her alma mater.

For more information on Marty’s work, visit the Anchor and Daisy page on Facebook. She also sells her work through Etsy and at a store in Austin, where she and her family moved last year.