In anticipation of the Walker’s first Jewelry & Accessory Makers Mart Online, Saturday, May 16 through Sunday, June 14, we’re highlighting some of the 24 local makers and artists whose hand-crafted designs will be featured and available for sale on our website.
Andrea Gharritt found inspiration for her brand Jac & Violet through the bold personalities of her maternal and paternal grandmothers, Jacqueline and Violet. Here she discusses how she bases her collections on people she meets who spark creativity, boldness and intelligence.
What drove you to pursue jewelry making?
I have always been fascinated by the fact that I could wear something I created with my own two hands. I remember being the kid that would bring her bucket of beads and jewelry-making supplies on road trips and weeklong vacations at the cabin. It was a hobby that I started very young, thanks to my mom, who always encouraged creative pursuits.
Art has always been a slice of reprieve for me, offering balance to the often heavier, science-focused world I was trained and now practice in as a dietitian and wellbeing coach. I pursued an art minor as an undergrad just so that I would have the excuse to take art classes each semester, alongside my nutrition, physiology, and metabolism classes. I always knew that I would do something with jewelry. It was less a matter of if and more the matter of when.
What were the early stages of your jewelry business like?
Honestly, I am probably still in them! As of May 11 of this year, Jac & Violet will have been live for a year. I am in a constant state of learning, growing, and redesigning with this business and my craft. But given this isn’t the first business I have started, I know that feeling never really goes away. You just learn to learn into it. This past year has been a lot of “yes”—to markets and pop-ups, to new stockists, to lots of hours spent in my studio. I am beyond grateful for the year I have had with Jac & Violet, and I look forward to taking time to recalibrate to foster more harmony between my two businesses and my personal life. But I am pretty sure that is what we’re all trying to do!
-
Jac & Violet, Ruth collection. Courtesy the artist.
-
Jac & Violet, Audrey collection. Courtesy the artist.
What is your other business?
My other business, Dietitian Andrea LLC, I started more than three years ago. I am a Functional Dietitian and Wellbeing & Body Confidence Coach. I empower smart, self-aware, driven women to take ownership in designing a life that makes them feel well and grounded in the relationship they have with themselves and their bodies.
For me, health and wellbeing is the starting place not the end game. For so many women, for so long, they have tried to fit their bodies and how they care for themselves in a box of someone else’s standards, rules, and plan. They have been taught by society to place so much personal value and worth on the size of their hips or the number on a scale. It has consumed energy and brain space that could otherwise be used to move towards that big, scary goal or finding internal peace. It takes a lot of strategic practice, ah-has, and new ways of thinking to unwire decades of these damaging thoughts. But when a woman has that moment of clarity, seeing herself in all her wisdom, aligned with her purpose, embracing that her body is the vessel not the goal: oooh, baby, those are the moments that give me chills and keeps me inspired to do the work.
Do you find ways in which the businesses influence each other?
Both of my businesses, at their core, are aimed at empowering women—to own their talents and intuition, practice confidence, and trust themselves and their bodies. I don’t force it, but my businesses do naturally support each other. I should probably figure out how to be more purposeful about this, but as I said, I am leaning into the learning part of owning both a service-based and creative business. It’s a wild ride that I’m always trying to navigate smarter.
How do you decide on naming a jewelry collection?
Powerful women make the world go round! So rightfully, each collection is named after a powerful woman who inspires me: friends, family, artists, legends, and movers and shakers that live (or have lived) boldly in their own truth, love fiercely, and are a gift to the worlds they influence.
Do the people you base collections off of also participate in your creative process?
It depends! I have done some collaborative collections with local makers, shop owners, and small businesses and these involve lots of conversations and brainstorming. In these collections, the individual/brand/business will help drive the colors and talk about shapes that they are feeling. I will then go back, pull together the color story and sketch some shapes and capture the feel of the collection. It is an iterative process until both parties feel confident in what I am going to create. I also give the heads-up that I purposefully give myself room to play with each collection so there needs to be flexibility in the plan.
I have many collections where the person it is named after has no idea until I release it. This is usually with family and friends who I know very well and have based the color story and some of the shapes in the collection off of their personal style.
What do you love most about being a jewelry designer?
I love that I get to play—with colors, shapes, patterns, composition. It is therapy for me. But one of the coolest things about making wearable art is seeing it on the owner. And hearing them say that it is the jewelry they choose when they want to feel bold or energized or playful or confident. I love the Iris Apfel quote, “Jewelry is the most transformative thing you can wear.” And I believe it. Jewelry makes you feel a certain way. And hopefully for those that wear my work, it helps them to harness their power, giving them the courage to show up as their bravest, most authentic self.
Get Walker Reader in your inbox. Sign up to receive first word about our original videos, commissioned essays, curatorial perspectives, and artist interviews.
)
)
)