Blank Verse: October 2009

Blank Verse Jewelry was conceived just a few months ago. In a beautiful storm of sequins and poked fingers and dear friends and business forms; we arrived at this wonderous moment in our company's history.

And, here we are, after a week of running from city hall to the planning department, bank, post office, fed-ex, another bank, and then, running in circles within the dizzy-ing corporate world of Anthropologie....we can breathe for a moment before getting back to work to fill our order and get ourselves ready for a trunk show next week...

Our brief history is magnificent and sweet. I am still in awe. A friend recommended that we document our experience of the the last few months, and...I believe that there is a good story or two in here...

Without expecting all of our busy friends to read too many details, I wanted to share a few experiences and I hope that Jane will share her's too....

April/May - Jane and I gathered some of our grandmother's things and sat down at a bench that Matt Farrar made for us in their garage. Jane and I made some really fun pieces and planned to continue making stuff to wear. We loved to hear each other's ideas for future projects including a line of conceptual jewelry. We had no expectations. We had no other wishes than to be able to support our habit of making stuff together. We shared some of our pieces with friends at a party in May. Our dear friend, and champion believer, Deirdre Sholbrook, was so excited by our new pieces that she didn't flinch when she nearly broke her toe in my back yard on a stump that evening.( I'm so sorry about that! )
June/July - We took some time off in the summer...meanwhile, Deirdre showed our work to her business partner, Heidi Pettit, who then took what we had to Casey Larkin, of Mr. Larkin.....
Casey Larkin was excited and special ordered 12 pieces to use with her 2010 line on the runway at NY fashion week!
August/September - Jane and I got the order for Casey's show, and kept working...not knowing what would come next, but thrilled beyond belief that this amazing, and successful designer ( Casey Larkin ) would include our work in her runway show.
As a kind gesture, Casey then took our work to DNA with her, where Anthropologie's buyer discovered our deconstructed gloves ( Jane's exclusive design) that have become one of our signature looks.
September/October - We have now put aside all of our other pursuits in favor of filling our latest order for Anthropologie's Manhattan store, getting ready to participate in a trunk show at Eco-Citizen and looking forward to a trunk show at Vie Bungalow at the end of the month
...phew....

Along the way we:
-learned to source in a variety of unconventional ways
-relied on the help and support of many friends and family members
-did a lot of research and development with not a lot of sleep in between
-got a website in a day ( with huge thanks to Matt Farrar!)..business cards, labels, stamps....( thanks again, Matt!!)
-got a zoning permit, business license, fictitious name published, got a vendor #, wrote a partnership agreement,
got a business bank account, reviewed a 50 page contract with Anthropologie, and spent countless hours at work focusing and lovingly making our beautiful jewelry.....

I can hardly imagine that this experience could be any richer or more dear or more perfect. I'm sure I'm forgetting to tell the whole story, so I hope you will tune in to hear Jane's half...

I am so grateful to be able to go through this with you, Jane, you are the perfect partner!