This month we have asked one of our favorite artists and custom jewelry makers, Karin Jacobson, a few questions about her life and her jewelry. Karin currently creates from Northeast Minneapolis, and like we do here at New Gild Jewelers focuses on ethically sourced and recycled materials.
Karin has received many accolades for her custom jewelry, including the 2020 MJSA Vision Awards, First Place Responsible Practices Distinction. She is also a Saul Bell Design Award winner!
To shop Karin’s custom jewelry pieces, you can visit us here at New Gild Jewelers, or shop her studio. Now, on with the tête-à-tête!
How did you start making custom jewelry? At what age and what pushed you to begin?
When I was in high school, I was actually most interested in drawing – but once I tried custom jewelry, I really loved it. It absolutely fit my personality. I enjoyed the precision and technique, and was fascinated by how it all worked. When I asked my instructor if I could work for her for the summer, I wasn’t yet sure I wanted jewelry to be my career, but I already knew that I loved it and wanted to learn more!
I was quite young – I actually got an apprenticeship right out of high school – so I was around 18! my first big girl job was bench goldsmith … but I rolled right into that having started as an apprentice. Honestly, I haven’t had a lot of jobs other than this one – I’ve worked in the service industry (server and bartender), done some temporary work while my business was getting started and I wanted flexibility, and did a fairly short stint at a jewelry repair shop. I was attending the Perpich Center for Arts Education, and asked my jewelry teacher (a working artist who was a visiting instructor) if I could apprentice under her over the summer after graduation. We both initially thought it would just be a one summer thing, but we got along well and I ended up working as her bench goldsmith before, during, and after college – for nearly 7 years.
How do you bring your own emotional landscape into your custom jewelry?
Well, I definitely think that the process of custom jewelry design is very personal – particularly when I get to create an entire collection, which allows me to find a style or motif and really dive into it and explore what I can do with it. I suppose jewelry design is so personal because it is like saying, “here is a creation that has come entirely from my imagination, and which I think is beautiful.” And then, of course, you put it out in the world and cross your fingers hoping that other people will also think it is beautiful!
From where do you draw inspiration?
My current collection is inspired by Origami – I wanted to create in metal the delicate feeling of folded paper – in which you start with something thin and flat, and it gets folded up to create a voluminous form. In doing so, I can create pieces that have a big visual impact, but which are also lightweight and comfortable. But when I’m working on a new idea, my ideas can come from almost anywhere. Usually, I try to take some time to just ponder what I’m going to make, and I find long walks outside to be a particularly good way to sort out my thoughts and ideas.
I also like to visit art galleries and museums to find inspiration – I actually try not to look at too much jewelry when I do this (I don’t want to be too inspired by other jewelry because I don’t want my pieces to look like others that I’ve seen), but to get inspiration from other types of artwork.
What is your favorite material to work with and why?
I love working with 18 karat yellow gold and sapphires. (I know that is two materials, but they’re in different categories, so I’m going to roll with it!) I’d take 18 karat gold over all over metals because I love the color and because it is so easy to work with – it’s malleable, but not as soft as 22k or 24k; and the color is just like honey! Also sapphires are my favorite because they come in so many different and brilliant colors, and are also very easy to work with – they are exceptionally durable, and are the colored stone I always recommend for long term everyday wear. My own engagement ring (which I made) is 18 karat yellow gold with a fair trade sapphire from Malawi.
What is one piece of advice you would give to someone wanting to begin making custom jewelry or people who are wanting to start their own line?
Make sure that you come up with a style that is truly yours. You want people to be able to look at any piece of your jewelry on its own (not in the context of the entire collection) and be able to recognize that you’re the artist who created it.
What was the last bit of advice you gave to a customer about jewelry?
If you truly love a piece of jewelry, don’t bother worrying if you can “pull it off” – if it is too fancy, too much of a statement, a color of metal that (you think) doesn’t work with your skin tone, or whether it matches your other jewelry or watch – get that piece of custom jewelry for yourself and know that it is FOR YOU to enjoy and nothing else matters! Then put it on and rock it – it was meant to be!
What has been your strangest request for custom jewelry?
I had an engineer client who wanted a ring made of palladium, but instead of gemstones, he wanted me to flush-set a whole bunch of computer hard drive heads. And I did do it! They are really tiny, shiny black rectangles – so it looked really cool! But it was not easy at all – as it turns out, they are also kind of fragile. Luckily, he supplied the hard drive heads and had extras.
To see more of Karin’s work, and our own, we hope to see you our custom jewelry studio – located in the Linden Hills neighborhood of Minneapolis, MN – soon!
