Some Answers...Pt. 2

So, I promised to continue my jewelry-making story. I was born in a little town south of Tuscaloosa... OK. That's not true. And it doesn't have anything to do with jewelry, either!

I began making jewelry in earnest about 4 years ago. I still had all of my supplies tucked away, and I took them out and started playing with them. I knew that I was planning to sell some of the pottery that I make at the Holiday Sale held at my local arts league (where the pottery studio is housed). I suddenly thought: you know, I should finally do something with these beads on a grand scale, and try to make a profit on all of this stuff that I've had sitting around for years! So I took everything out, and got to work. Having something to do was a great idea, as it turns out, because I found out that my cat had cancer that fall, before the sale. I stayed at home, near her, for a few months, just keeping her calm, making sure she ate, checking on her stitches from surgery, etc. Having something to keep me busy was key, then.

The cat improved (still with us, thank you! In fact, she's standing here meowing as I type), and my skills improved, and I did sell lots of pairs of earrings at that year's sale. My prices were very low (I was asked to raise them, and I struggled with that), and my display and packaging were a nightmare. But I moved out some stock, I got reinvested in my hobby, and I was thrilled to have made the sales I made.

And that, my friends, is the history of Jericas Designs. I've gone on to bigger and better things since that first sale, and I hope to go on to even more of them, but those pairs of earrings, made at the dining room table every night after work when the sun went down and it was just me, and my poor, sick cat, alone in the house, were the start of it all.

So, a big round of applause for recovered kitties and cool earrings everywhere!

Pearls Before Swine...Well, NICE Swine, I Mean

So, continuing with the trends theme, I was at a bridal shop the other week and my friend (who has been reading all of the mags) mentioned that brown dresses are all the rage this season. I'd never thought of brown as a bridesmaid dress color, but hey, fashion is fickle, and every color has to take its turn in the bucket. In a way, brown is certainly more manageable than an aqua and pink dress (and yes, I've seen those), though I'm not sure every woman would look good in plain, unembellished brown. But, I digress. Fashion is what it is for a reason, and it must be obeyed.

Just as soon as my friend hipped me to the brown dress phenomenon, I started seeing brown pearls cropping up EVERYWHERE. Brown pearls! At first I thought....brown? Hmmn....but the more I looked at them and the more I thought about it, I really began to see them as something interesting and certainly something eye-catching.

Brown pearls exist naturally, and after they became popular came the knock offs. I don't mind. I'm a knock-off queen myself because it's cheaper that way, and ...well, I'm cheap. Anyway, the natural browns are best seen in the Tahitian pearl range. Tahitians are the most expensive pearls there are, salt-water grown, and amazing in color. The nacre (calcium carbonate material that makes up the pearl), the luster (light-reflecting depth and shine), and the orient (iridescence) of a Tahitian or a South Sea pearl are absolutely beautiful. The ring pictured above features a brown Tahitian pearl surrounded by white and chocolate diamonds (diamonds are always popular and in the last few years, colored diamonds have become huge on the red carpet and on the left ring-finger of a lot of Hollywood celebs).

For every high-end trend, there's always a less expensive alternative. The cheaper brown pearls I've seen have ranged from bronze to milk chocolate in color and are usually freshwater pearls. They are generaly 'enhanced' (a term which means dyed. But don't be disappointed, almost all gemstones we seen on the market today have been enhanced in some way, using heat, or irradiation or another treatment. We'll talk about that in a blog entry in the near future). This necklace features enhanced brown cultured freshwater pearls and citrine beads, connected by sterling silver.

Neither design featured here is mine.

If Only Crayola Made Gemstones: Fall/Winter Forecast

I'm guessing you knew that there's a palette of colors that goes along with the seasons, right? I don't mean the seasons outside your window, I mean the seasons of the fashion world (though sometimes, the 2 seasons match up). Well, there's also a palette of gemstones to coordinate with those trends.

This fall/winter, some pale shades are getting their due. Seafoams, mints, lilac, ecru. But there are a few more vibrant shades too--a deep brown red, a rich dark green, a burnt orange.

Jewelry makers always want to keep on top of the trends. Last year, I told a friend of mine that purple was going to be the new red, for the holidays, and I was right. I started seeing Christmas trees decorated in purples, and celebs hosting holiday events in purple gowns.

So, what kind of jewelry do you wear with this fall/winter palate? Smoky quartz continues to be a big hit this season. Maybe that's a good thing. In terms of metaphysical properties, it's said that smoky quartz allows us to accept both the positive and negative things about ourselves and others, and that it helps us reach the places that make us uncomfortable with ourselves, the personality characteristics we'd like to deny. Smoky quartz is rock crystal, and it's mined at high altitudes--Colorado, the Swiss Alps, Brazil. Perhaps that's why it helps us rise above ourselves to that Zen-like state? If you believe in the healing power of stones, of course. I don't know that I do. I haven't worked with smoky quartz before, but I really should try it at some point. It's a semi-precious gemstone and not overly expensive. The image above shows faceted smoky quartz beads.

Another trend (and a perennial one at that, it seems) is pearls! What's new in pearls? Color. Rich, dark colors like maroon and brown offer a new twist on an old classic. Pearls continue to take on new shapes, as well, with stick pearls and other geometrics growing in popularity.

I'll write about a fall trend in pearls in my next update.

A Quickie Photo Addition

I found a second photo of my wares displayed at A Show of Hands craft gallery. I think my items are better showcased from this angle. Again, they're in front of the orange pillow. Now, I need to take some NEW photos with which to titillate all of you! I'm working on it, I promise.

Some Answers...Pt. 1

How did I get interested in jewelry design? I'm so glad you asked!



Who can ever remember how these things begin? I know that I began making things during college. Really, really bad things. I had the interest, and maybe even a bit of the eye, but none of the tools (and like any craft, correct tools are some of the most important things to have). However, like many a college student, I had one saving grace: I was willing and ready to wear whatever horrible crap I churned out with my tarnished wire and nail clippers, tweezers, and anything else I could scrounge up. I was a regular MacGyver.



I didn't do much with earring design at this point, because the lack of tools (and materials in general) really held me back. But then I went to grad school, and somehow, I ended up at a local bead shop, with a friend. She must have driven me there, because it was off the beaten path, and I remember it being a really, really nice place. A quiet hum of happy, creative women, the steady rhythm of beads being shuttled to and fro in their containers, lots of finished designs to inspire the jewelry maker, and tons of natural light. It was, to my mind, the perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon (especially when the other option was homework). I had found my niche. I probably still have some of those early beads and creations somewhere...



The shop offered classes and sold tools, and so my friend and I signed up. I was pretty green, but the classes ran over the course of several weeks, and they were very well taught. I picked things up quickly, but they were also pretty simple to learn. I left knowing how to make a pair of beaded earrings, and I also bought a set of German jewelers' tools (which are, incidentally, the same ones I use today). The 2 sets of pliers were $17 apiece, and I remember thinking that purchase to be pretty extravagant. But, you really can't make jewelry without pliers, so it had to be done. Those bright red babies have seen a lot of use in the last 15 or so years.



I remember running into the academic advisor for the school's history department (my major in college) at the shop, and being so excited to get to know her in a different way, to have something new in common with her. She was a great woman, very vibrant and likeable (I think she recently retired after all of her years of advising, getting a PhD and writing a book) and I remember her once saying, very earnestly: You know, when you think about necklaces, it's really a shame women only have 1 neck. So true! I hope Hindus have a Shiva-like God with 8 necks instead of arms, because I'm really not that into bracelets... Imagine dressing HER for the Oscar red carpet! Harry Winston, move over. And over. And over. And...



My advisor had her work for sale at the shop, I think, and I had this moment of realization: SHE can do it! She's not a professional jewelry maker, she's a historian. And she made something someone will like and buy and wear. And SHE is the one who made it! It kind of blew my mind. While I like much of what I make, there really is something about the external validation of getting praise or, better still, making a sale, that I treasure.



I wasn't really selling anything back then in college, save for a pair of earrings here or there, but when people found out that I had tools (and wasn't afraid to use them), I got a lot of 'hey, can you take a look at this?' or 'why doesn't this clasp close anymore?' questions from people. Fixing those problems gave me great experience, and it also taught me what I could, and couldn't, do (some of that had to do with my skill set and some of it had to do with things that, once broken, really can't be put together again). Being able to alter designs made by others was great, too. Have a necklace you like with some ugly beads? No problem. Have something made for a smaller wrist or neck? No problem.



Beading is a popular hobby now, but it wasn't back when I started. Maybe I'm the one who brought beading back?



Pt. 2 will catch us up to current day jewelry making and the birth of Jericas Designs.

Post-Blog-Creation Frenzy!

Ah, the post-blog-creation frenzy. It usually sounds the deathknell of a blog, no? But not in this case! No. In this case, it's kicking this blog off right! Getting this glittery and bauble...y party started!

Last year, some of my work was featured in a Philadelphia craft gallery called A Show of Hands, located on Antique Row in the Society Hill section of the city. The Row houses galleries, antique shops, and boutiques. One of my lines of jewelry was featured at A Show of Hands for a full 12 months, and I enjoyed several sales. The shop is certainly the fanciest place I've ever sold my work, 'a whole 'nother level,' as it were. I'm not sure how they're going to keep me down on the farm...

I was smart enough to snap a shot of my work displayed in the craft gallery--squint, and you'll see it arranged on 3 neck forms and the table top directly before them, right in front of the bright orange pillow. (Note to self--don't let anyone display my transparent glass beaded jewelry on black velvet, ever again! It's like putting a dark tarp behind a stained glass window and blocking out all of the sun.)

[This space reserved for a link to the A Show of Hands website...if they create one. I suppose a shop on Antique Row isn't really working the tech angle, right?]

Begin the Begin (not Beguine, that's different)

Thanks to a lovely cyber-friend named Jamie, I've decided to blog about my nascent jewelry design bidness. I'm weary of starting a blog, and then growing tired of it, or frustrated by it, but because jewelry is eternally fascinating, to me, and if nothing else, shiny and pretty, I have high hopes for maintaining this blog. That few people will come across it is actually a good thing! High readership demands high output! I mostly want a place to document my creative ideas, my findings, my designs, my sales...that sort of thing. Someplace to point people when they very kindly say: So, what sort of stuff do you make? How'd you learn? Do you sell it anyplace? Got any pictures?

For the answer to that last question, I really do need to find my digital camera...and when I find it, I really need to learn how to use it. I know, I know. Look! My job is to make the jewelry, not master the technology needed to show it off to its best advantage.

To that end, I'm hoping that friends who wear my work will let me post pix of them doing so, here. Or better yet, send them in to me to post! I'm all about pawning the job off on others...

Thanks for taking a look!

Jennifer
Jericas Designs