Karen Smith: We Wield the Hammer

After a voice told artist Karen Smith she’d go to Senegal, she went. Apprenticing there with a master goldsmith, she was watched constantly but silently by a young girl. “She thinks you’re a ghost,” someone finally told Karen. “She’s never seen a woman do what you’re doing.” In response, in 2019 Karen launched We Wield the Hammer in Oakland, CA, determined to empower young women of African descent to wield all the tools and equipment in a good jewelry studio, and launch their own businesses, too. Join Karen and host Katie Hacker as they discuss the progress Karen has made on her startup in this especially tumultuous year, and the hurdles she still faces.

Each year in January and February, people gather in Tucson, Arizona to buy and sell beads, gems, and other treasures from around the world. There are over 40 shows in different venues across the city, all with their own flavor. To me, the experience feels like part shopping adventure, learning experience, and family reunion. While I was in Tucson, I caught up with Lenka Bindzar, the owner of Raven's Journey, who has been traveling to Tucson to sell Czech glass beads for the past two decades. Show Notes can be found here: https://www.interweave.com/jewelry-artist-podcast/treasures-in-tucson-lenka-bindzar/

Known for his stunning jewelry designs featuring rough diamonds, innovative artisan jeweler Todd Reed has been redefining luxury and championing ethical sourcing throughout his career. Turning the notion of fine jewelry on its head, he is drawn to these uncut, unpolished diamond crystals for the quirkiness of their personalities. From the perfect simplicity of a single cube to a busy crystal cluster bristling with different shapes, he finds raw diamonds fascinating and provocative. He also loves the challenge of creating custom settings for stones just as they come out of the ground. Listen in with host Katie Hacker and learn to look beyond cut, color, clarity and carat weight to the character of a diamond in its natural state.  Learn more here: https://www.interweave.com/jewelry-artist-podcast/todd-reed-diamond-jewelry/

Tracy Matthews is a jewelry designer, entrepreneur, and Chief Visionary Officer of Flourish & Thrive Academy. She's also the host of the top-rated Thrive By Design Podcast. Tracy's new book, The Desired Brand Effect, is packed with strategies, steps, real-life stories, and resources to help you build your jewelry business – or any business. In this episode, Tracy shares suggestions for visionary leadership, alternative business plans, and more.  Learn more here: https://www.interweave.com/jewelry-artist-podcast/tune-up-jewelry-business-tracy-matthews/

Jean Gribbon founded and directs Beads of Courage, Inc., an innovative arts-in-medicine nonprofit that supports children coping with serious illness, as well as their families and health care providers. Members receive colorful glass beads during the course of their treatment, which provides a connection between the child, clinician, and caring community. In this episode, we talk about the intersection between art and science – and why experiencing art and making things is good for us.   Learn more: https://www.interweave.com/jewelry-artist-podcast/jean-gribbon-science-art/

Robin Kramer has the industry experience and unique ability to look at an artist’s work and recommend practical steps they can take to improve their business. She started Red Boot Consulting in 2010 and co-founded Flourish & Thrive Academy for jewelry designers in 2012. In this episode, Robin and host Katie Hacker talk about mentoring and being mentored, along with tips for growing your business.  Learn more about Robin: https://www.interweave.com/jewelry-artist-podcast/jewelry-artist-robin-kramer/

The first time I met Susan Lenart was in a cold connections workshop at an art retreat. Her class blew my mind – she taught us to infuse found objects, wire, hand tools, and other jewelry-making bits and pieces with kinetic energy - but to attend to them with intense focus and skill. It was like a journey we all went on together, with Susan as our guide. In addition to being an accomplished artist and jeweler, Susan is also an author, instructor, and expert at product development. In this episode, Susan and I talk about her metalsmithing lifestyle and how listening to her artistic voice is the key to her success.

Anie Piliguian grew up at the jeweler’s bench, learning a can-do attitude and meticulous skills from her father. She credits him for teaching her not to fear anything at the bench. Since inventing the JOOLTOOL, her focus has been on teaching jewelers everything she knows so they can make jewelry successfully. As a lifelong maker, she continues to improve her own work and finds that she frequently learns as much from her students and she hopes they’re learning from her. Listen in for a peek a behind the scenes of Anie’s business and hear how she approaches life with bravery and gratitude. Plus, learn about Anie’s early experience with making jewelry for a rock star.

Moving parts intrigue Kieu Pham Gray, she tells host Katie Hacker. Kieu loves figuring out how to make things happen, from engineering kinetic jewelry that’s meant to be played with to pivoting her business model. Leaving the corporate world behind nearly 20 years ago because she “didn’t fit the mold,” Kieu has been an active jewelry entrepreneur ever since. She’s a jewelry artist, teacher, retail supplier, and event promoter. When Covid shut down her in-person teaching, she was online with a couple of casual classes in two weeks. Today her Virtually Ever Crafting is its own business line. Learn her approach for keeping balance in her busy life — and discover which unlikely profession she does think about returning to for just a moment from time to time.  See Kieu's work, jewelry tools she developed, and learn more about her here: https://www.interweave.com/jewelry-artist-podcast/kieu-pham-gray-6-jewelry-tools/

“Hi, I’m the jewelry designer for The Guiding Light,” a struggling jewelry artist named Jill MacKay once announced in the luxury department store Bergdorf Goodman. As she tells long-time friend and host Katie Hacker, early on Jill had decided TV would be a good way to get exposure for her brand, and it was. Now an award-winning craft industry figure, Jill has devoted equal effort to jewelry and helping others, developing creative programs for those in grief, and giving back through public art. Listen in and learn her secret to letting creativity in so she can send it back out as art, make a living, and stay sane.