Jeri buys
her lampworked focals and accent beads from bead shows. She
confides, “I save up for bead shows to find ‘The One Bead’ that
is calling out to me on that day.” She likes to use beads made
by local artists. Calvin Orr, Daniel Moe, Caroline Hannon, and
Mike Ferro are some of her favorite artists. She mentions, “I
especially love the depth and detail of boro beads. They seem
to have an “organic’ feel to them that attracts me.”
Many online bead and jewelry
forum friends influence Jeri’s work. She shares, “I would not
be designing jewelry now, or have setup
my own business website, without their generous help and
encouragement.” Mostly self taught, Jeri would, however, like
to take classes “where heat, flame or chemicals are involved.”
Regretting having bought inexpensive tools to
begin with, Jeri says, “I think many of us make this decision,
and come to find poor quality tools quite frustrating. I also
made the assumption that small hands needed small tools, but
unless you’re smaller than an adult glove size small, short
handled tools make you work harder for the same, or inferior,
result. Now I’d recommend buying the best quality you can
afford, and try before you buy if at all possible.”
The creative outlet Jeri derives from making
her pieces and the variety of forms and processes incorporated
therein is what keeps her going. “Designing something different
from one to the next keeps my interest level high," says Jeri.
Her current favorite technique is the chain-maille with
lampworked beads. She says, “This is where I may need to shift
my bead searches to smaller accent beads rather than the pendant
focals I’m usually drawn to.”
On being asked to describe her favorite piece
so far, Jeri says, “I call the piece, ‘Deep Space,’
(shown below)
with a focal
and accent beads by Valerie Logan of Gray Parrot Glass Studio,
in Colorado. I just can’t capture the depth these beads have in
a photo, but in the focal there are these little spots, like
windows, where gold flecks float within the clear glass
encasement. Even further into the interior there is a core of
transparent cobalt blue that has a vivid glow in full spectrum
lighting. I’ve surrounded these amazing beads, which remind me
of a trio of undiscovered planets, as though they’re passing
through a ‘Milky Way’ of blue goldstone. There are also
amazonite rondelles to highlight the softer blue/greens in the
lampwork. Being simply strung, it can be worn casually with
indigo jeans or dressed up with basic black.
Jeri
currently sells her jewelry directly to people she knows,
through referrals, or when people walk in and see her work in
display cases. On an average, her pieces range from $50 to
$300. “I’m also receiving a few website orders, while still in
the early stages of promoting my website and developing “search
engine optimization” so people can find me online,” she says.
She has also spent time refining the processes to make it safe
and secure in both directions. It
was Jeri's family -owned business, which caters to teens and
young adults, that exposed her jewelry to a niche market.
Jeri plans
to diversify her stock
and present it to different markets beyond Hawaii.
A
