Jane D'Arensbourg
Jane D’Arensbourg talks to us about how she made the transition from making glass sculptures to making glass jewelry, how her mother served as her greatest inspiration and muse, and how being part of a strong community of artists and creative people helps her small business grow.
Necklace: Brass Bean and clear chain necklace, Earrings: Oval Brass and Glass, Bracelet: Antique Jade, Rings (Right Hand): Thin square brass band, Organic Square brass band, thin organic glass band in tortoise and cobalt, Rings (Left Hand): Brass bean ring, and wedding rings, (my husband's grandmother's wedding ring). Shoes: Martiniano, Checkered pants (PO-EM), gauze top (Golondrina of Mexico), vintage sweater (from Beacon’s closet).
Jane D’Arensbourg makes some pretty special jewelry. She starts with borosilicate glass rods that she shapes into her unique wearable sculptures with the heat of a torch. It’s inspiring to watch her take clear, glass rods and bend them into chainlink for earrings and necklaces. And her glass orb rings feel surprisingly strong and yet light on your finger. I photographed Jane in her Brooklyn studio, which feels as much like a gallery as it does a workspace. We talked about her history as an artist as well as her process and inspiration.
You began your career in the art world, making glass sculptures. Tell me about your studies at The California College of Art, and how you began working with glass.
I started studying sculpture at The California College of Art. I was first planning to work with metals, but ironically the metal department focused on jewelry, which I wasn’t interested in at the time. I wanted to make large scale sculptures and installations. The glass department was in the same building as metals and sculpture. I was so intrigued every time I got a glimpse of the glass blowers wearing cool sunglasses, blasting music spilling out onto the sidewalk and scooping hot glass out of the furnace. Once I signed up for a class, I was instantly hooked. My professor was an artist and was open to me working in mixed media with glass. I enjoyed glass blowing and tried out many other techniques like slumping, fusing, casting, carving and sandblasting glass. But in the end, it was once I took a flame-working class at the Pilchuck Glass School, in WA., the summer of my junior year, that I really found the perfect technique that gave me the option of working in much more detail and at a slower pace than blowing glass. I was also able to set up a torch in my live/work space to work with glass.
How did you make the transition to jewelry? Tell me about the first piece of jewelry you made out of glass.
I have been making jewelry since I was a little girl. I remember spending hours and hours looking through beads and combining them with vintage jewelry pieces I scored at thrift stores and flea markets. I started playing around with making glass jewelry when I learned how to flame-work at the Pilchuck Glass School. The first glass ring I made was a glass orb ring that I gave my mom. It was a bit wonky, but she loved it and wore it along with all the jewelry I made her every day. I now have it in my archive collection. My mother turned out to be one of my biggest muses. Every year for her birthday, Mother’s Day and Christmas, I would try to spoil her and outdo the last jewelry piece I gave her. One of the first glass chain necklaces I made was for her. I found a box of tiny pyrex glass hourglasses at a flea market - the kind you would use for a 2-minute egg timer. I carefully fused the hourglasses to chain links I had made of glass, so that while wearing it you could pull the chain around and watch the sand move through the hourglasses. I later made glass chains to suspend life size glass fishnet stocking from the ceiling, for my senior show in college.
After graduating from college I moved to New York to pursue a fine art career. I showed my artwork with many galleries and museums. An art collector was visiting my studio one day and saw some glass jewelry scattered on my workbench. At that point, I was just making jewelry for myself and my mom and friends. She thought I should try selling my jewelry and encouraged me to meet with a friend of hers that had a shop called Auto in the Meatpacking District. The owner, Renata, was really helpful with helping me price my work and get it out there. It sold really well, but I still had an imposter complex. I hadn’t really considered jewelry being my primary focus and means to make a living. But it just kept snowballing.
To support myself, I was also working as a glass fabricator for artists at the time. One of the last glass fabrication jobs I did was for the artist Jim Hodges, and a commissioned piece for the New Museum. It turned out to be one of the hardest, most time-consuming jobs I had ever done at that point. I spent a whole year making many life-size, intricate life-like glass branches for this commission.
A solo electronic musician friend of mine, Honeychild, asked me to project my artwork during one of her live performances. I ended up making some stop motion animations of drawings I did on my palms and projected those films along with other imagery I made for her performances. We had been doing little shows around mostly in the Lower East Side.
I had a few glass sculptures that were in a group show with The Museum of Art and Design, which was also traveling to be shown in a museum in Frankfurt, Germany. When I told my friend about the museum show in Germany, she decided to book a mini European tour for us. We ended up doing a bunch of shows in Barcelona during the electronic music festival, Sonar. We also had a few shows in Frankfurt, as well as evening opening up for the musician Peaches in Berlin. After returning from Europe, I completed the New Museum commission. I was able to save enough money from it to feel secure enough to focus on my jewelry as a career.
Jan D’Arensbourg’s Brooklyn studio and showroom.
Your mother was an artist too, and your husband is a chef. It seems like you live in a world made up of extremely creative people. How do you draw inspiration from the people around you?
Both my grandmother and mother were painters. My father was a french horn player, and my brother is a musician. I grew up in New Orleans surrounded by artists, musicians and really good food. I guess it’s something that I took for granted as a child. My mother passed away a year ago. I have been going through her things. I’m amazed at how much artwork and writing she produced. My mom was always painting, writing, knitting, creating something every single day. She did it for enjoyment and as her own personal spiritual journey. It was never to gain praise or notoriety. When I reflect on how I was raised by her, I see that it is something I have inherited. I feel a real sense of satisfaction when I create a piece of jewelry. And I love hearing stories from customers about their personal connection and enjoyment in wearing my jewelry.
I see that with my husband as well, being a chef. We both have chosen careers where we work with our hands. And we both enjoy making things for others to experience.
My husband used to own a restaurant, FungTu, on the Lower East Side. I’ve been there through my husband's whole process of finding his voice in cooking. When he was planning his restaurant he asked me to help with the interiors. I also made all the lighting for the restaurant, which consisted of vintage lighting for the bar that I acquired from a church that had been bought by a friend. I also made all the lighting out of flame-worked glass in the dining room. The most special project I worked on with my husband's restaurant was wallpaper for the dining room, which was a collaboration with my mother. One of the herbs that gave my husband great inspiration is from a tree called “Toon” that was growing in his grandparents yard in Yonkers. I asked my mother to paint some watercolor studies of the tender young leaves from this tree. I took these paintings and worked with our design team to design one-of-a-kind wallpaper for the restaurant.
Lately a big outlet for me has been growing our own veggies. It's been so satisfying seeing actual fruits of your labor bursting out of our back yard. It’s even cooler to see my husband get excited by what I am growing, and crafting it into a delicious artistic dish. He is also giving me lots of suggestions of what he would like for me to grow next. So our garden is our latest collaboration.
Necklace: One-of-a-kind large bean link necklace that I made for my mother, in tortoise glass, Earrings: Oval brass and glass studs, Bracelet: Antique Jade, Rings (Right Hand): Thin square brass band, Organic Square brass band, thin organic glass band in tortoise and cobalt, Rings (Left Hand): Brass bean ring, and wedding rings, (my husband's grandmother's wedding ring). Dress: Kordal studio, Shoes: LoQ.
You made many pieces, like the glass necklace with small hourglasses in it, for your mother. How did she specifically inspire and support you?
My parents divorced when I was really young. And my mother is the parent that raised me and my brother. She was very busy working and raising two kids on her own. She still somehow managed to find the time to paint and be creative every day. Painting was the one thing she always was able to carve time out to do. One of my favorite paintings of hers is a painting she did of our sink full of dirty dishes. I feel like that painting sums up my childhood. It was a little messy, but my mother always managed to find the beauty and the positive side to things. She didn’t have time to do the dishes, but always found time to paint, have fun and enjoy life. As I started to grow up, my mother always supported me. As a teenager I was the first out of my friends to get a new wave haircut and shave my head. My mom told me later that all my friends' parents were mortified that she would “let me” cut all my hair off. I even got in trouble at school for the way I was dressing. My mother always supported and stood up for me. She always encouraged unique self expression.
Tell me about Jane D’Arensbourg the brand. Who is the kind of woman who wears your jewelry?
When I started putting my glass jewelry out there to sell, the big trend was dainty little studs and little charms on thin chain necklaces. I have always been drawn to bigger, more colorful jewelry. I didn’t see anything out there that I liked, so I started making my own. My customer has always been a woman that is looking for something different. I have found that most of my loyal customers are artists, art curators, and architects.
Who is your dream client?
I would love to see my jewelry on Tilda Swinton. I love her strong and androgynous style. I could see her pulling off an extra long custom necklace.
Clearly, your jewelry designs are pieces of art worn on the body instead of hanging in the white walls of a museum. How do you see your jewelry in the context of other contemporary jewelry designers? Or how does it fit in the fashion world?
In the past couple years, glass jewelry has seemed to have a sudden spotlight in the fashion world. I saw it coming when Chanel debuted its Spring-Summer 2018 collection, which had clear PVC boots, handbags, hats and big clear jewelry. I knew something was changing when shortly after I got a phone call from Rhianna’s stylist in a panic on the way to the airport. She said they were in desperate need of clear glass jewelry. They were on their way to the airport for a shoot in London, and they asked to stop by my studio on the way to pick up some samples. Since I have seen a big surge of designers folding in glass elements into their collections. I was even knocked off in China, which was extremely upsetting. I generally avoid designing anything that is part of a mainstream trend. So it's been an adjustment for me to try to not be bothered by all the knock offs. I try to focus on the positives. Because brands like Chanel and Lemaire use lucite and glass jewelry, it has opened up a much wider audience for me.
Necklace: Medium clear glass chain necklace, Earrings: Small circle hoops in silver and clear glass, Bracelet: Antique Jade, Rings (Right Hand): Thin square brass band, Organic Square brass band, thin organic glass band in tortoise and cobalt, Rings (Left Hand): Brass bean ring, and wedding rings, (my husband's grandmother's wedding ring). Shoes: Martiniano, dress (PO-EM), pants: vintage sweater (from Beacon’s closet).
What is your design process like?
I rarely sketch out ideas. Glass is a material that has a mind of its own. You cannot tell it what you think it should do. I have been working with glass long enough to know that my best method of designing new work is to just play and experiment at the torch. I may see colors in a painting that inspire me for a palate to focus on in one season. Or a shape or a vibe that I’m drawn to at the moment.
Where do you find your inspiration?
I have such a huge stockpile of archive jewelry pieces that sometimes I will even be inspired by something I made 10-15 years ago. Perhaps it was too over the top at the time, but it feels like the right time to put it out there in the world.
You work mainly with borosilicate glass, but also with some metals. What draws you to these materials? Tell me about the decision to create some of your designs in metal as well.
I was struck by a room at the Miro Museum in Barcelona. The room simply had a pool of mercury behind glass. My metal rings are meant to look like mirrored glass, like a drip of mercury wrapped around your finger.
It sounds like you have a great community of artists, fashion designers and other small business owners, and you work to prop each other up and help however you can. How did this community come to be and how valuable is it your business? How do you recommend other small business owners find a community like yours?
I feel very lucky to be surrounded by so many talented friends in my community. I tend to spend a lot of time alone in my studio working. So making connections, talking shop and bouncing off ideas with other designers has been such a huge lifesaver. My studio in Brooklyn is full of many designers, ceramicists, online shops etc. Along with my neighbors, Mondays Ceramics and The Drive New York, we started putting together open studio sales a few times a year. I’ve invited friends like Bartleby Objects and PO-EM to join in my studio to show and sell their work. Since the first open studio we put together, many friends have moved into our studio building and joined us. It's been an amazing way to connect with my community. And I am really missing not being able to host another open studio right now!
Jane D’Arensbourg makes a glass orb ring in her Brooklyn studio.
What’s your personal approach to style?
I like to support small brands like my own. Most of my wardrobe is from a trade with another designer or unique vintage pieces I scored at a thrift store or vintage shop. I am drawn to color and graphic patterns. Sometimes I feel like I need to fold in some classic pieces to balance out all the patterns so I don’t look like a clown. But the plain black pieces in my wardrobe are rarely worn. I don’t shy away from layering patterns. I am also drawn to things with good craftsmanship. I am more likely to buy one piece of clothing that will be loved and worn constantly, than buy a pile of cheap fast fashion. I quite often trade with friends that are designers and artists; it's a fun way to support each other. I love being surrounded by things my friends make, whether it's a ceramic cup I am drinking out of, perfume or make up I’m wearing, or, more often, clothing.
I wear my friend Carla’s clothing brand PO-EM almost every day. She’s an artist designing hand woven and block print fabrics. Her patterns are very graphic and the cuts are very easy and comfortable. Half of my closet are her designs! I also have many leather handbags by my friend Mary’s brand Bartleby Objects. Her studio is in the Navy Yard near mine, and we often meet for bagels and whitefish at Russ and Daughters to talk shop and about life in general. Mary is one of those people that seems to know how to make just about anything. Her leather bags have beautiful details, that she cuts and stitches all by hand. Each piece is truly a work of art. Recently during the pandemic Mary started making leather sandals and slippers. We had a masked meeting a few months ago and I fell in love with a pair of her leather slippers. Spending so much more time at home lately, I was looking for a house slipper upgrade. And of course Mary was already anticipating this need. My feet are so happy and I love having little reminders of my friends surrounding me especially now.
Do you have any jewelry in your personal collection that wasn’t made by you? What other brands are pushing the boundaries of jewelry design?
Honestly most of the jewelry I wear is something I’ve made. I always like to wear my work to test it out and make sure that it's comfortable to wear. I have a few antique rings of my mother’s that I like to wear. I also have a pair of herkimer crystal stud earrings made by my friend Satomi Kawakita. If I’m wearing a big necklace, I will sometimes wear these stud earrings. They almost look like a piece of broken glass sitting on my earlobe. These have been favorites of mine for about a decade. I also have a jade bracelet that I wear everyday. It was my friend Vivian’s grandmother's bracelet. I have heard that you should never buy jade jewelry, that it will find you. This jade bracelet is meant to be worn until it breaks off. I’ve worn it every single day without taking it off for over 12 years. I hope it never breaks! It has become a part of me.
Thank you, Jane!
