West Village-based jeweler Lori McLean relocating to the East Village

[Image via Google Street View]

Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks isn't the only shop making the move west to east.

After closing her West Village location last month courtesy of a rent hike, jeweler Lori McLean is reopening her eponymously named shop at 320 E. 11th St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue on Sunday.

In addition to her own handmade line of jewelry, the new space will offer a curated selection of small, handmade lines from independent artists, according to a news release that McLean sent us.

"More than anything, we’re just excited to be part of a creative community again," Lori explains, noting that astronomical rents in their previous West Village location had turned the neighborhood from vibrant and heavily trafficked to desolate save for the corporations who could afford it by the end of the shop’s ten-year lease. "So many great, small businesses had closed around us, almost all replaced by big-name, luxury brands, that by the time our landlord offered us a renewal that was double what we had been paying, it was a little easier to say 'No thanks.'"

So she and her team packed up and embarked on what they have deemed their “East Village Migration,” choosing the spot on 11th Street nestled among neighborhood favorites like Casey Rubber Stamps and the Pas De Deux/Odin duo. The new location will transform the store into what McLean, with over 20 years of experience under her belt, hopes will become "more like your neighborhood jeweler," of days gone-by.

With her studio space tucked in the back, she and her staff will offer what have now become rare services such as custom design work, and, through their Jewelry Hospital” repairs, engraving, plating, stone-setting and pearl stringing services, to name a few.