Taking Some Time Amidst the Chaos

It's so easy to get completely overwhelmed right now so I'm trying to make time to take care of myself too. The Stoweflake Spa made that easy with their 50% off week deal. I called my dear friend Kori and we made a date for yesterday. We made sure to get there a couple hours early to enjoy the spa amenities: sauna, steam room, jacuzzi, waterfall pool, mineral pool. Pure luxuriousness.
Plus I was able to weave together business + social time + relaxation. The Spa made a BIG order from me over the summer and I was happy to see they are now quite low on work. They recently made a holiday order to replenish and I will be sending that in a few weeks but meanwhile I dropped off the 14 Chakra wraps that they ordered (they were completely out!) The Spa boutique carries the best products and features many Vermont made lines such as: Lunaroma, Way Out Wax and VT Artisan Tea Co. 

After a wonderful and relaxing Reflexology appointment with Lea I headed down the mountain road to the Stowe Craft Gallery to drop off the rest of their holiday order. 

So nice to see how they display my work and in a prominent position in the gallery. 

This week I also finished 3 new Turquoise pendants. You can find them in my Etsy shop. While I still have 2 shop orders to finish this week and then 3 HUGE shop orders to finish this month I'm trying to stay calm. Amanda Young is helping with that with weekly massages. After the spa afternoon yesterday and a massage from Amanda today, I feel ready to conquer the rest of the week. The sunshine ain't hurtin' either! To everyone that's workin' hard out there...make sure to take some time for yourself!

Artist Feature: Althea Designs

Today I'd like to introduce Althea Freeman-Miller. I just love her block prints. Last year I saw her show at Uncommon Grounds. I liked so many of her pieces that I couldn't choose. Through mutual friends, I saw her Facebook page and that she recently opened an Etsy shop. I was happy to be her first customer. So excited to read that she'll be hanging prints at the Skinny Pancake this evening. Her show will be up until the new year. You can even buy them right off the wall and take them with you! They make great holiday gifts. 

How lovely is this Vermont!?

Her studio is swoon worthy. So much color and wood and light.

These motorcycle boots are rad!

 I like the detail yet homespun-ness of this anatomical heart. 

Althea writes on her website: "All I ever want to do is make things. I specialize in linoleum block printing because I am fascinated by the simplicity and personality of carved lines. I love the abundance and repetition relief printing has to offer. I’m inspired by little things that make life better, like rocking chairs, Swiss army knives, and tacos! I love feeling an appreciation for the world around me. My favorite prints have a sense of humor and a well balanced composition. They are often tributes to an under credited beauty: a carrot, a horse shoe crab, or a cheese grater. I use color very playfully. I like bright happy color combinations including bold blues, oranges, and deep greens." 

Her celebration of the ordinary is so appealing. All the pieces look so great together. About her process: "I begin a piece by studying my subject matter. I usually end up with a series of pencil drawings,  trying different angles and prospectives. It helps to imagine myself carving as I draw, finding opportunities to add texture and always keeping negative space in mind. There is always the decision if I will carve the back away or the design into the linoleum. Perfecting my drawing is the most time consuming part of the process. I use Japanese wood carving tools and linoleum mounted blocks. All my designs are printed on quality printmaking paper with soy-oil based inks. A wooded spoon or a 4 inch baren is used to rub the back of the paper while it lies on an inked block. Prints are mounted to up-cycled wood. All pieces are finished with a clear coat to protect the ink. They are sold ready to hang. Seeing my designs displayed on wood backing makes my process feel compete. It’s as if the image has come full circle and returned to a wood block." 

This is the bicycle print that I ordered from her Etsy shop. You get to choose the color of the ink and the color of the painted wood, it's nice to be able to customize what you want and having the print on the wood block does give it so much more substance. Custom orders do take a few weeks though so now is a great time to order for the holidays. I placed mine next to my back door and I enjoy that it's like a sign to remind me that my bicycle is right outside. Oh and look at that, right next to my Skinny Pancake hat -how perfect!

Kahn Man - Coming Soon to Spellbound

For over a decade I've just been making things and adding them to my "line" and now I'm starting to separate pieces out into collections. For a while now Mara Brazilian has been requesting that I make jewelry for her store Spellbound (previously Salaam), we've talked about me making a "man" line to accompany the large selection of men's clothing and accessories that they carry. So now I'm pulling apart my line and rebranding most of my pendants (the ones that come on black waxed cotton cord) into Kahn Man. (Heh.) 

These pieces parlay perfectly into a man line, really they are unisex. Simple but eye catching, they are a mix of industrial and rustic, and look great on guys. Guys could use some cool, edgy jewelry made of sterling or brass. I'm making the necklaces longer and the clasps bigger. There will also be keychains - great gifts. This is all happening just in time for the holidays and exclusively at Spellbound. I plan to add onto this line in the new year. It's really exciting to move these over, change them, develop them and rebrand them while still keeping them under the umbrella of Jennifer Kahn Jewelry. So be sure to check out Spellbound this holiday season, I should have these there by the end of November.

So happy to have my work in 2 places on Church St! Trinket will now carry a much larger selection of earrings and they will be very well stocked for the holidays. 

I hope everyone has a wonderful Halloween weekend!

Cleaning, Shopping, Organizing...

As I transitioned from the end of Artist Market season to the beginning of crazy holiday season, I took a moment to super clean my studio. With cleaning came the reward of making space for new (vintage) organizing drawers. I'm always looking for these things and was so shocked to find not one but TWO affordable, old, metal drawer cabinets at 2 different vintage shops within a week. It helps to keep careful watch of their Facebook pages because I happened to see their photos right away and made sure I got to their shops asap. The first one was at Vintage Inspired Lifestyle Marketplace. 

I love this shop and check it out often. A great activity before heading over to Oakledge. They even host outdoor flea markets once a month from May-Oct. The lovely owner, Mary, posted a photo of an Oak display case but I zoomed in on the metal watchmaker's drawers... 

I inquired how much in a comment on the photo and she got back to me right away, so I ran down there before they closed and snatched up this beauty. It even had tiny watch parts strewn throughout.

 Then I bought a bunch of these beading trays that happen to fit perfectly, 2 to a drawer so I can easily move things around. Now instead of having random trays all over my room, taking up valuable surface space, all of my wholesale orders are easily contained in here, under my table, but super organized. Ahh. Seriously, this is a game changer.

Not even a week later, I happen to see Barge Canal Market post the above photo. They sold the table, stools and crates right away and I asked how much the thing on the right was and they got back to me quickly. I was there the next morning to nab it, hadn't even been in the shop 24 hours! So social marketing seems to be working for these places! 
Barge Canal is in the heart of the South End and it's a fantastic place to roam around after eating at Myer's bagels. They set up great little vignettes with their inventory and treasures abound. 

Here's the metal drawer tower tucked into the corner of my studio, among friends. It fit in the only space I could've possibly fit something. It has 15 drawers and I've filled them with postcards/business cards, catalogs, and most of my fabric, lace and leather scraps.

Clean workspace! I'm determined to make this last!

 As clean as this area gets... but it's organized! 

Everything in it's place!

Look at all that surface space! (This photo was taken before the new metal tower addition. Now all of those boxes in the corner are gone and their contents are in the drawers.)

 I also dropped some work off at Trinket.

Here's my earrings at Earth and Wears in Dallas, PA.

So now I'm super happy to be working away in my clean space. I highly recommend taking a moment to regroup before the madness! 

Taking Stock...

As I sit here...procrastinating from cleaning my studio, I'm reflecting on this past Artist Market season. This is the first year I haven't attended every market and this is the first year I started wholesaling. I loved having the ebb and flow of markets and store orders. I would think how well it worked out that one week I would have the market and the next I would fulfill an order and then realize that it worked out like that cause I scheduled it like that! 
•It's really nice to not have a weather dependent income and to have some Saturdays off! 
•It's also nice to be able to transition to something new but maintain the stability (and joy!) of the market. 
•Doing fewer markets made all of them good markets! Instead of ups and downs they were all really great and I'm so thankful for that.
You can read about how I made the switch HERE.

New 3 Piece Turquoise collar necklace and new Sterling Hoops

I started the year with my work in Trinket (where it has been since Rachel opened in '09) and the Stowe Craft Gallery where I had my work last holiday season.

When it came to finding new shops, I figured my best bet was to focus on Vermont. The Shoe Horn had been trying to get my work for a few years and they were happily on board to represent me in Montpelier. Then I got into Common Deer in Shelburne and then the Stoweflake Spa reached out and ordered. I contacted one of my favorite galleries, Gallery in the Woods in Brattleboro and they ordered too. This was a great start and it gave me the confidence and credibility to seek out shops in New England.

I did a lot of research. For every artsy/hip/funky/bohemian town I would look for a cool boutique and a shop that carried handmade goods. I would send both emails and catalogs and hope that one would write me back and this often worked! One of my favorite shops I've found is Ode. In July, instead of doing a market on a Saturday, I did a trunk show on a Friday at Ode and then they became an account.

Wherever we travelled, I set up appointments, some of those shops will be carrying my work next year. I managed to get my wraps into an Oxygen bar and my earrings into a beautiful shop, Maya in Santa Fe. 

I also had my share of rejections but there's no time to get upset about those. I would just cast a wider net, write more shops and move forward...plenty of shops in the sea!

I've had 3 Etsy wholesale orders since getting juried in last May. Each one has been super exciting, especially not having to make the effort to find the shop - they find me! And they just order! And it's gotten Colorado -T.Karn Imports, Washington D.C. -Wake Up Little Suzie, and Maine -Nest on the map! 

Montana from Trinket recommended my work to Magpie in NYC and Earth and Wears was carrying my chakra wraps and she just picked up my earrings. 

So now I'm in 13 shops! And most are ordering for the holidays and I'm just a tad... slightly... FREAKED OUT!!! Luckily I have my two interns, Molly and Fiona to help out. So thankful for them, I don't know what I would do without them. I can take a break from looking for new shops now and focus on the ones I'm in, I'll resume the search next year. Meanwhile more random Etsy Wholesale orders could come through so that's exciting/terrifying.

This year I'm taking it easy on shows, just the Women's Festival of Crafts and the Holiday Artist Market. I usually do 4 but I have to make room for shop orders. 

So that's where I'm at. Feeling super proud at getting to this point. Feeling like I've taken a huge leap forward in my business. Excited to send my little babies out into the world to fend for themselves, they are in great care in these gorgeous shops and galleries. 

I guess it's time to clean my studio...

Back in the blue...

...blue/green - I just love Chinese turquoise and I'm back to making my signature collar pieces and single pendants, all with rich textured backs. Thanks to Molly who encouraged me to get back into this! (By the way, check out her brand new blog which I encouraged her to get into!) These pieces are now available in my Etsy shop. I will also have them at my last Artist Market of the season, this Saturday. 

 New Turquoise 3 Piece Collar

 (the back)

 Turquoise Pendant with tribal back

 (the back)

 Turquoise Pendant with flower back

 (the back)

Also very happy to have just sent this order out to Wake Up Little Suzie in D.C.

This week in pictures

The most beautiful time of the year in Vermont! Been taking a lot of photos...

View of Mansfield in all it's fall glory from Underhill

This tree in Underhill was fiery red!

Gorgeous yellow trees by the King St Ferry

Sunset view from the Ice House

Kayaking on Lake Champlain

Visiting Kiwi pup at Celie's

Patiently (not so patiently) waiting for a treat

At Celie's - like a painting!

Love the colors - at Celie's

Kithcari lunch with Celie

Pear and Root Chakra Wrap

Finished a BIG order for Ode boutique!

Necklaces for Ode! 

What glorious autumn things have you been up to?