Demand is up for jewelry made locally - Foster's Daily Democrat
Earth Metalworks owner Glynis Dixon used to waitress in Portsmouth, painting murals for restaurants and homes as a side job. Painting was fun, but Dixon felt that she was “lacking something in the creative department” until she took a jewelry class at The Maine College of Art “for something to do during the winter months," she said. "After the first class, I was hooked.”
After each class, Dixon was so excited to put what she learned into practice that she would go to a hardware store and buy a new tool. She also began collecting found objects to incorporate into her nature-inspired jewelry, like sea glass, stones, salvaged barn nails, and leather from thrift store belts. By the time Dixon went into business in 2012, she had collected all the supplies she needed.
The demand for handcrafted local jewelry is so high that Dixon has been able to quit waitressing to work with mixed metal and enamel full-time. She works out of a home studio in Wells, posting finished products in online stores and spending Saturdays selling them in person at the Portsmouth Farmers Market. She is currently in the market for a studio closer to her Kittery and Portsmouth customer base. “They want to come in and shop,” she says.
Brie DeLisi, the owner of Prelude in Portsmouth, said about a third of the jewelry in the boutique is made locally or in New England.
“I do love supporting local artists because it’s the right thing to do,” DeLisi said, noting that when she worked in a less competitive retail market in Exeter, she was able to stock even more local jewelry, closer to 70 percent of the inventory. “Because Portsmouth has so many boutiques and there are a lot of artists, no one wants to step on any toes,” DeLisi explains, so neighboring businesses do not carry the same artists.
DeLisi said she saw a “huge influx” of local jewelry making during the Recession years because people who weren’t career jewelers were “trying to make ends meet, trying to be creative and resourceful.”
DeLisi noted that traditional brick-and-mortar stores are only one way to sell jewelry: With e-commerce, “there’s just so many ways to do things now.” For example, Prelude carries jewelry from the Portsmouth company Stelzer Metalworks, but owner Megan Stelzer also sells her work online and uses social media for marketing. Her Instagram makes use of hashtags like #handwrought and #realjewelry.
Stelzer stumbled into the jewelry business as a teenager, when her father forced her and her sister to get jobs with a jeweler friend. “I didn’t even want that job, I didn’t wanna work,” Stelzer says, laughing. “But it’s really great that I did.”
A recommendation from her first employer led her to stints with two other jewelry makers, and she learned the craft along the way.
Stelzer moved back to Portsmouth from Los Angeles in 2001 and started making her own jewelry for fun. She now works with copper, sterling silver and brass in a loft studio at the Button Factory.
Stelzer avoids symbolism in her jewelry, preferring to ”create things from my subconscious.” This process results in metal hammered into organic shapes, ranging from simple notched copper cuffs to $200 intricate tribal hoop earrings in sterling silver, which Stelzer terms “treat yourself” jewelry. Despite the price tag, the tribal hoops are among her best-selling items on Etsy, the online marketplace.
Stelzer credits former Prelude owner Holly Landgarten with pushing her to start Stelzer Metalworks. Landgarten “started harassing me to sell my work in her store,” Stelzer said. “She really helped me figure stuff out. ... When you don’t go to school for something, you have to kind of get all that information from people you know, and people you don’t know, too, keep your ears open, mind open.”
Stelzer says that one of the most important skills for jewelry makers is “an ability to learn tools.” Dixon, who has an associate’s degree in merchandising and retail, agrees that practical knowledge is the most important part of a craft business: “I think people can learn a trade now without having a university type situation. ... Trade schools might be a good alternative.”
Although social media marketing and online marketplaces have changed the jewelry-buying game, real-life craft fairs are still a major source of revenue. Stelzer works six to seven days a week during the summer to keep her stock of jewelry up for the next event, while Dixon finds some of her most loyal customers at craft fairs and farmers markets. “They’re always contacting me” for custom jewelry, as an alternative to buying an unknown product online, Dixon said. “They love to be able to have that personalized service.”
DeLisi and Prelude manager Maeve Sullivan report seeing more customers asking specifically for local jewelry in recent years, especially tourists who are looking for unique souvenirs.
“People come and ask, blatantly, ‘What’s made locally?’” Sullivan said. Customers also ask: “'Where is this made?’ ‘Is it made in China?’ People want high quality things, people are becoming more conscious consumers, and that’s a good thing.”
“It’s that metaphorical fingerprint that I’m putting on something,” Stelzer said of the appeal of handmade jewelry. “Every time that I swing my hammer onto the metal is a decision. ... You don’t get that from a machine.”
