Sibling Rivalry

My Daughter The Jeweler

Jessica Kagan Cushman

"I want equal time" was my daughter Jessica's reaction to my recent Blog about "My son the Artist". Of course she is right. ... She deserved it! Bred with the same family affliction, she has carved out a successful career as a jeweler under the label “Jessica Kagan Cushman”

In all fairness, Jessica did try the corporate route, working for 15 years as a management consultant figuring out how to explain the complexities of retirement benefits to employees. Not surprisingly, that mantle didn't fit her. The tragic loss of her 21-year-old son sealed her fate. Jewelry had always been the true lifeblood of her existence - buying not making the stuff. Suddenly a light lit up: Dad did scrimshaw! (A delicate craft requiring infinite patience and diligence) It is literally scratching images onto a whale's tooth with a thin sewing needle perused from Erica's sewing basket. “I am usually a quick sketch artist - drawings on envelopes or paper table clothes in a restaurant, developing a new design, later enhanced with a dash of color with a magic marker. I am not your typical engraver on an unforgiving object like a whale’s tooth”. In the sixties, whale ivory was not considered contraband. It was readily available for virtually pennies in the "gifty" shops of Nantucket. I don't know what possessed me... probably the historic environment of my adopted Island Nantucket, with its history of Whaling. Sailors did exquisite scrimshaw to pass away idle time on their ships. The ultimate fashion statement on Nantucket has always been ownership of a hand-woven reed basket with elaborate carved or engraved ivory covers. These baskets are simply known as Nantucket Baskets. They are highly coveted at antique shows and auctions and depending on the maker, fetch outlandish prices.

The Nantucket Basket skrimshaw I engraved for Jessica in 1974

I made basket covers for Erica, my two daughters and a few lucky friends. It was a moment in time long forgotten until Jessica got the bug. She had been collecting antique ivory bracelets for years, purchased at backcountry fairs and flea markets. Why not scrimshaw them with pithy saying; Jessica was never shy for words and this was her golden opportunity to immortalize them on these bracelets. Her new career was launched!

Jessica's closet - her treasure trove of collected jewelry (the other side are her shoes - as colorful as her jewelry)

Jessica's Woolly Mamoth ivory skrimshawed necklace and her "save the Elephant ivory - resin bracelets

Jessica’s bracelets became an instant success. From her first exhibit at Madi Weinrib’s chic gallery at ABC Carpet, her next big hit was Barney's, Colette in Paris, Moss and Bergdorf’s. Jessica was on a high… outselling her artist brother and even her Dad… Instead of using Elephant ivory she discovered fossilized Woolly Mammoth Ivory gathered in the far reaches of the arctic (since it is tens of thousands of years old, it not considered an endangered species). Next she realized she needed to knock herself off before someone else did so she produced an affordable version in "save the elephant" Ivory: resin! Fashion Magazines, Movie stars, "W", and fashionistas all began collecting Jessica's baubles avidly.

Jessica's upscale jewelry for Berdorfs and Collette in Paris

Gold bobles cast from found objects

Jessica's handbags and totes

...and for Nantucket she designed these woven baskets with floral lids

Success begets success and she needed to expand - next came handbags emblazoned with her outrageous sense of humor. Followed by exhibits in prestigious fashion shows in America, Paris, Berlin and Japan.Production became her growing pain...She moved production overseas… that dreaded concept reviled by decent people. Yet there is nothing in our daily lives, not our cell phones, those beloved I-pads nor the clothes we wear that is not made in China. For Jessica it required un-enjoyable trips to factories in Dongguan followed by production snags, unfulfilled delivery promises and all the growing pains of an expanding business…. Jessica ended right back in the corporate swirl that she so happily abandoned all those years ago. This time a second light hit her: licensing! Outsource the drudgery and stick to the fun – the design process. In January her licensed designs will be launched at the Atlanta Gift Show on wine glasses, napkins, wine bags, candles, ipad cases, tote bags and jewelry! Meanwhile, she is continuing to create her unique fine jewelry with diamond-encrusted ebony, blackened silver necklaces, bracelets and earrings that she sells at Bergdorf Goodman and other high end stores the world over. Her imagination bubbles over. Each morning she awakens with new ideas. Her studio in Redding, Connecticut overlooks her garden and a bucolic pond. Jessica has found her niche.