fun colors - fun joolz

We are delighted to welcome Jennifer Lenel to our lineup of artists.  Now living in Washington State, Jennifer has been making jewelry for some time.  When we first learned of her work, she was using sterling silver.  Now she's switched to working with anodized aluminum,, in all its many colors.

Take a look at her Paula necklace:

Don't the colors just sing?

And put them  together with her Naomi earrings, and you're ready for a party:

Have fun shopping!



fun new pieces from susan nickles

I've been hard at work today, taking photos and then editing them  for the online store.  I just haven't gotten that far yet....nothing's up on the store but it is waiting in the wings. 

Here are a few of the images from today's shoot:

Sterling silver and tumbled blue glass from a Sapphire Gin bottle

Sterling silver and tumbled "beach" glass from a wine bottle

Sterling silver 2-1 chain necklace with a 1"

domed/pounded disc and a toggle closure, 19"

Sterling silver rings with a drop pearl and lobster claw clasp, 20"

Sue makes each sterling ring and embellishment herself - great technique and a transitional (and very wearable) aesthetic.  Call me if you want to grab any of these before they go up on the online store.







getting into (double) trouble

It's been a while, hasn't it?  I apologize, but I've been busy!  After we returned from  our beach holiday, I dove right back into the major volunteer job that I had started in the late fall.  We finally wrapped that up at the end of June and it's been fun and family, family, family since then.  Now it's time to get back to work and to get our online store back up and running.  Lots of images to take and edit, joolz to be measured and info to be uploaded to the store software.  Soon....I promise.

But today was a bus man's holiday for me.  The annual outdoor Arts at the Gardens art and craft show, held on the grounds of Canandaigua's lovely Sonnenberg Mansion and Gardens, kicked off at 10:00am  this morning.  I was there at 9:50, ready to stroll and look and NOT buy anything.  I keep telling myself that I will never pay retail jewelry prices again.  That good intention went out the door at 10:05am, when I stopped to see what new creations Linda Lawrence had in her booth. By 10:10am, I owned this fun piece:

Colorful, whimsical, eye-catching, one-of-a-kind.....all the things I like in playful, glass bead jewelry.

And to make it a business-related transaction, I asked Linda how she liked using Square for her show credit card processing program.  (She loves it!).  Thanks, Linda - great necklace and a fair retail price.....even though I am  never paying retail again....

Until I got to Barbara and Rick Umbel's booth:

You'll remember from  my last blog post in March that I had met Barbara and Rick while on vacation, and fell in love with their shell and precious metal jewelry.  I reintroduced myself and fell in love with their work all over again, this time walking away with this aqua limpet and blue topaz pendant and multi-strand cable necklace:

You'll note that Barbara has changed the design of the piece a bit, so it's not exactly like the one I saw in Florida.  But it is smashing and I know I will wear it often.  And by the way, Barbara loves Square, too.

The show was beautifully organized by friendly, helpful volunteers and the lineup of artists was topnotch.  Even Mother Nature cooperated, with temps in the high 60"s and sunny skies.  I saw lots of friends and even was able to spend some time walking the show with my youngest brother and his wife, who are staying in the area for a while.  All in all, a very nice morning, despite the fact that I got in (double) retail-priced jewelry trouble!

my kind of shelling at the beach

Our annual vacation at the beach has been a delight so far. We've relaxed, eaten well, read numerous books, seen friends from near and far and are expecting our kids to start arriving tomorrow. But it's not always play and no work, as I'm always on the prowl to find new artists.


This morning was the Lions' Art and Craft Show, where several years ago I found the work of the very popular Joan Sample. Joan's button jewelry is owned by many, many JOOLZ customers; we hit a home run with that find.


We had another good find this morning: Barbara Umbel from Pawley's Island, SC. Barbara works with shells, sterling and 14K yellow gold to create beautilfully crafted, unique pieces.

This is a necklace where the center section can be separated from the chain and worn as a pin:

In talking with Barbara's husband, Rick, I learned that they are going to be exhibiting at Sonnenberg Gardens' Arts at the Gardens show in Canandaigua this coming August. This will be their first time at AATG and I know they will be well-received; Barbara's work is just stunning. Here's an aqua limpet shell slide that can also be worn as a pin:

Definitely my kind of shelling.

a hop across the border

Last week we celebrated our 42nd (!) anniversary and decided to take a spur of the moment trip to Niagara-on-the-Lake to celebrate. I called the Shaw Festival box office on Wednesday for Friday matinee tickets to see "My Fair Lady" and we were able to get seats in the 6th row. Amazing - as this is the show everyone is talking about this year. (And they're right - it's a fabulous production, one of the best we've ever seen. Get tickets if you can).


Then I thought, well, why not see if Lisa Ridout and her husband, Ben, could travel down from Toronto and meet us for lunch. Lisa and I had met in NOTL for lunch a couple of years ago and we both had loved the restaurant she'd suggested, Tony Deluca's Old Winery Restaurant, just outside the village. Trying it again, we arrived at just about the same time and had a delightful lunch on the outside patio.



While the food was delish, the best part for me was the extra-special dessert that Lisa brought with her....bag after bag full of gorgeous sterling silver and Swarovski crystal designs, many of which were new to me. We brought back almost 50 pieces of Lisa Ridout Jewellery (Canadian spelling, of course!), several of which we sold on Saturday before they even made it into the case.


Among the new pieces we have are this sterling silver Diamond Back necklace:

and the cream Swarovski pearl and sterling silver toggle Jackie O necklace:

As many of you know, Lisa's work can be found in Canadian jewelry stores coast to coast, but we are the only store that carries her in the US. Her work is unique and gorgeous, two words we like to use for JOOLZ, too.

wear your veggies!

Most of us receive a gazillion catalogs in the mail, especially before the holidays. Many of them I toss without even looking at the first page, but others draw me in. Several months ago I opened a small catalog featuring handcrafted items...and discovered something so unique I needed to learn more. There were pictures of cuff bracelets - made of vegetables! And they were stunning. Completely unique. Environmentally friendly. Gorgeous. Good conversation pieces. JOOLZ material. I contacted the artist, Margaret Dorfman of Oakland, CA, and placed an initial order. The box marked "fragile", but not "perishable", arrived yesterday. Inside were veggies like you have never seen them before:

This is a 22" necklace made of slices of Thai green papaya. Margaret cuts the fresh fruits and veggies (over 40 different varieties) with an old fashioned slicer and super-sharp knives. Next the slices are cured, dried, pressed and aged in a 10-14 day process.

The slices are then fused to copper disks and finished with a non-toxic, water-resistant clear coat before being fashioned into necklaces and earrings.

The 18" necklace below features small disks of many different fruits and vegetables:

The colors and veins apparent in the pieces are not dyed or in any way color-enhanced. This cuff bracelet, one of 3 we currently have in stock, is made from slices of Mexican papaya:

Another show-stopper is this articulated necklace made of crimson-colored fruits and veggies:

Earrings can coordinate with the necklaces. These are made from blue cabbage and beets:

This Thursday, April 7, I am off to visit my daughter and grandson in LA. Marnie is a naturopathic doctor and her clinic is hosting a medispa from 5-9pm that evening. She asked if JOOLZ would like to have a trunk show as part of their evening event. I immediately thought of Margaret Dorfman's "healthy" jewelry. She's on board, and will be sending a shipment of delicious vegetable parchment joolz to LA for the event. If you're in the area, please stop in:

Balance Westside Wellness

11340 W. Olympic Blvd., Suite 301

Los Angeles, CA 90064

See you in LA!

christmas in april

It's Christmas in April at JOOLZ! My many hours spent looking for new work to bring in for our spring/summer season came to fruition today with the arrival of several packages of delicious new goodies. We are adding a number of new artists to the fold, two of whom are shown here:

Jill O'Reilly, from Lexington, MA, has been making updated-classic sterling silver jewelry for a number of years. I first met Jill in Las Vegas 2 years ago and have been waiting for the opportunity to bring in her work. Her cuff bracelets can be carefully adjusted to fit just about any wrist size and her workmanship is superb. We have these and several other bracelets, along with some great-looking post earrings:

sterling 5-band bracelet

sterling cuff with gold-filled wrap

sterling cuff with sterling wrap

Also placed on display today were these fun pendant necklaces by Zillah, WA artist Cheryl Myers. Cheryl takes commonly-seen road and construction signs and makes them into resin and metal pendants on silver chains. Fun to buy, fun to wear, fun to start folks talking. (Cousin Leslee, this bike route pendant has your name on it).

And watch out that you don't get shocked by the high voltage!

The UPS guy dropped off two other packages this afternoon. The Christmas in April fashion show will contnue as soon as I shoot some more pix.

on the job!

Yes, we're on vacation, but I am on the job! Today was my annual trip to the Bonita Bay Promenade for the March Bonita Springs National Art Festival. As you can see from the above photo, the weather was perfect - low 70's, with blue skies and abundant sunshine. The crowds were also abundant - I had a hard time finding a parking space and I got there 5 minutes after the gates opened.


Security was out in force, but this guy was already sitting down on the job. Watching all the shoppers go by can be exhausting:

Actually, the security guard is a life-size polyester and resin sculpture! Pretty amazing.

Jewelry artist Jayne DeMarcay was again at the show. I love her work, but unfortunately, she only sells retail through art shows:




I did discover a husband and wife jewelry-making team from Springfield, Illinois who work with stones and laminated glass, creating interesting pendants and necklaces. We'll try to bring them in once we have some space available, perhaps in the summer.


Meanwhile, I purchased a fun shadowbox collage for myself, entitled "Cowgirl Rules":

The RULES state that cowgirls

• tell the truth
• cry when they need to
• are true to their partners
• ride fast
• shoot straight

Love it!

kerry's new digs

The Rochester art scene celebrates its artists and galleries at monthly First Friday open houses. Tonight was the first First Friday for glass jewelry artist Kerry Bogert, one of our favorites at JOOLZ. Kerry recently made the big move from her home basement studio to Studio #307 in Rochester's Hungerford building, located near the Goodman Street railroad yards.


In the early to mid-1900's, the Hungerford Building was a major manufacturing plant for the J. Hungerford Smith Co., which made "True Fruit" flavored syrups as well as the syrup for A&W root beer. It now houses small companies, individual apartments and art space. Tonight it was hoppin' with art patrons and I was one of them.



After climbing the three flights of stairs to Kerry's studio, I was greeted by cheerful balloons in the hallway outside her door. While I had watched the space come to life on Kerry's blog, it was so much more fun to see it in person.

On one wall was Kerry's great studio sign:

Kerry has had her hands full this week with kids down with the flu and school snow days, but she was there tonight, beaming with pride at being in her own space:

Extremely organized, Kerry has created her studio with care and style. Her glass rods are ready to be pulled from her self-designed "down spout" racks:

Her latest works are displayed in a wonderful old bookcase that she and her son painted a sophisticated black:

The necklace on the far left was created today, just in time for the open house:



And now her work table is cleaned off and ready for another day:

Just imagine all the colorful beads that will made at this torch, ready to be incorporated into another wonderful Kerry Bogert creation. Congrats, Kerry! - you're a shining star.

we did it!

When you're running a retail business, you're always looking at the numbers (or at least, I am). How are we doing against the previous year? How are we doing against the same day from the previous year? How are we doing against life in general??

I am thrilled to report that yesterday was busy, busy, busy and all those men with looks of panic haven't even surfaced yet. As of yesterday, December 11, we have surpassed ALL of last year's December!!

That means your favorite pieces....you know, the ones you've been "watching" for a while, might be on their way out the door with someone else. Better hurry in and grab them for yourself, before they find a home with another happy buyer.

PLUS, we have new work from William Glasner, Linda Connor Cass, Sara Silvio, Kerry Bogert, Joan Sample and Carrie Zabkar, all of which is already selling fast. See you soon!

art walk - this friday, december 3

Twice a year, the art galleries and specialty boutiques of downtown Canandaigua host Art Walk, a wonderful evening to stroll Main Street and discover Canandaigua's cultural treasures. JOOLZ has been part of Art Walk since we were the new guy on the block. Now three and a half years later, we're one of the seasoned veterans.

We try to book our evening's guest artist as early as we can. This time was no different, but when the artist canceled on us with only a few weeks to go, we had to scramble. Hoping against hope, we contacted Kerry Bogert, a lampwork and wire work artist who was our guest artist during a prior Art Walk. We explained the situation to her, she checked her calendar and said YES! We're thrilled.

Kerry will be demonstrating both her lampwork and her wire work, will be bringing copies of her best-selling book, Totally Twisted, with her and has been hard at work in the studio creating new work just for this evening.

It's going to be a fun evening and a great opportunity to find unique holiday gifts. Kerry will be with us from 4-7pm. Hope to see you then.

sarah berardi trunk show

When I visited the Clothesline Festival in early September, I was delighted to meet Sarah Berardi of Grazia Jewelry, the Merit Award winner in jewelry this year. Sarah works with precious metals and gemstones, creating regal and elegant joolz that are feminine and very wearable. Originally from the Buffalo area, Sarah has recently lived and worked in New York City, fabricating her work in her Tribeca studio. Today she brought a collection of her work to JOOLZ for a holiday trunk show.

Sarah and her mother, Grace, spent the day with us and introduced her charming designs to our customers. We enjoyed every minute of their visit. Thanks, ladies!

behind the scenes

We're just back from a 2-week trip to France (more about that in upcoming posts) and still figuring out which time zone we're in. After looking at Orbitz, Expedia, airline sites, etc., we consulted our travel agent and learned about a good deal on Air Transat out of Toronto. It's about a 3.5-4 hour drive to Toronto from our house. Weather and border crossings permitting, that would end up being a shorter haul than flying from Rochester to JFK or Boston, and risking lost luggage and missed flights. I called Lisa Ridout, our favorite Toronto artist, for advice on where to park our car for two weeks. Lisa very kindly offered her studio parking spot (she said she usually rides her bike or hoofs it to work) and also invited us to tour her studio. We readily agreed, but only if she would let us take her and her husband, Ben, to dinner before we headed off to the airport for an 11pm flight to Paris.

The border crossing was as speedy as it's ever been, but traffic closer to Toronto was wall-to-wall. We soon discovered that it was Thanksgiving weekend in Canada and every single person was leaving Friday afternoon for the country, ready to enjoy the last 3-day weekend of the year. We arrived after a 4-hour drive and Lisa was ready and waiting to tour us through her studio.

Making sterling silver chain jewelry for over 15 years, Lisa is a master of her craft. Collaborating with a mechanical engineer, she has retrofitted ordinary machines to do extraordinary work.

First she flattens the end of a coil of sterling silver wire:

Next she pulls the wire through a sizing plate, stretching it to just the right diameter for her intended project:

The perfectly-sized wire is then coiled and finally cut, creating a cascade of silver rings that sounds like a winning Vegas jackpot when Lisa directs the rings into a metal storage container:

Then it's over to her bench, where Lisa works her magic with pliers in both hands, twisting the ends to a seamless connection - no soldering needed. She says she can tell "just by the feel and the light on the metal" when the link is perfectly round.

Lisa creates traditional designs and other, more unusual chain designs of her own creation and puts them together with sparkling Swarovski crystals. Into the tumbler they go to be brightened up and the result is her highly reflective, intricate, gorgeous Lisa Ridout jewelry. We love it...and so do our customers.

Here are studio shots of her Shift bracelets and necklaces, some of which we brought home with us on Friday:

We are so pleased to have Lisa as one of our JOOLZ artists. She's also become a good friend - and that's a big part of what makes my job so much fun. Find great joolz and meet nice people...and get to go behind the scenes and see how it all comes together. Doesn't get much better than that! Thanks for everything, Lisa.

a name that works

One of Rochester's well-loved newspaper columnists was Peter B. Taub. He wrote about all sorts of things, but was best known for his pieces on people. He especially loved to connect someone's name and what they did for a living - and would say "now, that's a name that works!"

Our newest artist at JOOLZ, William Glasner of Victor, NY, has a name that works. A glassblower of long standing, he first opened his studio in 1978. He's been part of the Middlesex Folk Art Guild for over 30 years and has had his work exhibited and collected throughout the United States, Canada and the Far East. Formerly creating vessels of carved glass, he now focuses on much smaller pieces that make up his glass jewelry, but the process is still the same.

Traditional techniques are combined in an innovative way to create a historically new bead style Since no two beads are identical, each piece of jewelry is an original work of wearable art.

All the beads are made entirely by hand in his home studio. Hot glass is pulled into long handblown tubes which, when cold, are sawn into bead-sized segments. These are individually carved by hand with diamond wheels using traditional cut glass and Italian "batutto" techniques, then finished with a proprietory polishing or acid etching process. Other components are sterling silver.

We're delighted to have William Glasner as one of our JOOLZ artists, and invite you to stop in to see his very interesting and unique work.

(all photos courtesy of William Glasner)

twisted tuesdays

Webster artist Kerry Bogert, one of our favorites who has been with us since the very beginning, is one talented girl. Not only does she produce gorgeous lampwork glass beads and sterling wire work jewelry, she's a fabulous photographer. She and her husband, Ron, came to JOOLZ for a visit recently and she took some snaps. Today, her visit to JOOLZ was featured on her blog. Check it out and see her great pics of the store and Joolie, our shop dog.