Geometry finally makes sense to me when I look at Janis Kerman’s designs! There is something so clean and neat about her work that really appeals to my sense (and maybe desire for!) order and structure. Her asymmetrical earrings, like the ones in this picture, are some of my favorites. I love the fact that she says “it’s the balance, not the symmetry” when it comes to design. I think of that as a corollary to “jewelry pieces should coordinate, not be matchy-matchy”. The other thing that Janis is a master at is taking older jewelry pieces (a.k.a. the things that you’re not wearing and are just sitting in a drawer somewhere — but you don’t have the heart to give away) and creating something brand new from it. This is the necklace she made for me a couple of years ago from some necklaces and earrings that I had.
One of the things that is so rewarding is to hear a customer who has a “repurposed” piece of jewelry from Janis tell us how much she loves it — both because of how it looks, as well as because it enables her to wear things that have sentimental meaning but haven’t seen the light of day in years. This is a great time of year to go through your jewelry box (you know, it’s that spring cleaning thing!) and see if there aren’t some pieces that you’re not totally ready to part with but that you aren’t wearing. And, as you can tell from the earrings in the picture above, it doesn’t matter if you don’t have matching stones.
If you’d like to spend some time with Janis so that she can sketch some designs for you, please give us a call so that we can schedule an appointment. In addition to the custom design work, there will be plenty of Janis’ finished jewelry to look at that you might want to make your own too. The trunk show and custom design event runs Thursday and Friday, May 12 and 13, from 10am – 7pm, and Saturday, May 14 from 10am-5pm.