|
Glamour
girls
Mother
and daughter join together to launch ArtWare, BridalWare jewelry
By
Rebecca Migdal
for The Brooklyn
Bride
When
Celine Beitchman was a girl, she modeled hats for her mother.
The fact that Bernadette Peters might be sporting the same
headgear on the morrow was business-as-usual for the young
Celine. Her mother, Marsha Beitchman, was then a theatrical
milliner whose hats were seen in such fashion-conscious Broadway
shows as “La Cage Aux Folles” and “A Chorus
Line,” and whose private clients included Liza Minelli
and Bobo Rockefeller.
“I had to model hats so often, that when I grew up I
hated wearing them,” Celine jokes. A shot in a photo
album shows her at age 13, posing fetchingly in her mom’s
handiwork, a simple but trendy black bonnet. Marsha’s
creations would eventually headline at Barney’s, Saks
and Bloomingdale’s.
Back then, Marsha would bring home bags of buttons, beads
and notions for her millinery creations, and her enterprising
daughters, Lilith and Celine, would make earrings from the
leftover fripperies and sell them.
Early in 2004, mother and daughter had a serious discussion
about the future.
“We asked ourselves, ‘What should we really be when
we grow up?’ ” recalled Celine with a laugh. That’s
when they came up with the idea of becoming business partners.
Today Celine, 35, whose creative talents have been applied
variously to fine cuisine, glass blowing and filmmaking, and
Marsha, 58, are collaborators on a line of jewelry they call
ArtWare.
ArtWare specializes in fashion-forward necklaces, bracelets,
earrings and cufflinks for women and men. The wearable confections
are constructed from precious and semiprecious materials:
pearl, opaline, amethyst, crystal, vermeil and silver. Celine
doesn’t seem to mind modeling the fruit of these collaborations.
This afternoon, she’s adorned herself with a y-silhouette
necklace resplendent with half-inch, faceted beads of bright
tangerine coral.
ArtWare’s jewelry is styled with an eye to bringing out
the beauty of the natural materials, using oversize pearls
and chunky stones, along with ethnic and vintage beads. The
results are lusciously touchable, wearable pieces that look
and feel rich and exotic. Marsha and Celine regularly comb
the globe searching for unusual stones, beads and findings.
Many of their creations are one-of-a-kind; nearly all are
limited edition.
Wedding crystal
ArtWare’s pristine wedding collection, BridalWare, dominated
by freshwater pearls, moonstones, and precious Swarovski crystal
beads, is nonetheless moderately priced, with many items in
the $100 to $200 range. (Swarovski is a European manufacturer
of high quality cut crystal.)
The most expensive piece, a unique 40-inch strand studded
with 37 massive matched freshwater pearls, interspersed with
Swarovski Aurora Borealis crystal rondelles and 24-karat gold
vermeil daisies, is $460, and matching earrings are available.
Marsha and Celine delight in creating custom ArtWare for the
entire wedding party in colors and materials to fit the bride’s
style and budget.
And for those whose obligatory “something old” comes
in the form of less-than-perfect heirloom jewelry, ArtWare
can give new life to great-grandma’s dilapidated antique
baubles. Marsha and Celine excel at incorporating vintage
materials into chic designs that will add glamour to this
special day.
In ArtWare’s pleasant studio and showroom, located in
Marsha’s Clinton Hill digs, she does the lion’s
share of the designing and fabrication. Celine, who lives
in DUMBO, handles more of the business end, but both take
a hand in every aspect of the collaboration and have input
into every decision that affects the partnership.
Today, Celine does most of the talking, and when Marsha speaks,
it’s of her loves and convictions. For Marsha, each piece
of jewelry she and Celine create has a unique story. It is
conceived in the earth or the sea, where the stones and materials
are formed; it’s developed within the creative flow of
a rich cultural tradition, where beads are often ancient decorative
symbols of identity; and ultimately, it ends up in the fashion
vocabulary of one of her customers.
For example, recently Celine had an opportunity to meet Hillary
Clinton, and presented her with a necklace made of deliciously
seedlike ceramic beads. The beads were handmade in a women’s
collective in Kenya, a country where the high incidence of
HIV has decimated the population. Supporting the handiwork
of these struggling women makes wearing this beautiful jewelry
all the more meaningful, and Celine says she hopes Clinton
will feel the same way.
Marsha expresses her own concern with keeping ArtWare affordable,
without compromising the respect she feels for the artisans
who create the beads and stones she buys.
“No sweatshop labor,” Celine agrees.
“We’re not tapping into the lowest price [for our
materials],” Marsha says. “Still, we don’t
want to price ourselves out of the range of regular folks.”
With all her passion and idealism, Marsha says it’s important
to have a partner to help her make decisions. She always asks
Celine to advise her before she makes a big purchase.
“There are times when I get to be the parent,” says
Celine. “We sometimes disagree, but we have a healthy
relationship.” .
ArtWare is available
for purchase online at www.ArtWareNY.com;
Brooklyn Museum gift shop, 200 Eastern Parkway at Washington
Avenue in Prospect Heights, (718) 638-5000; Kimera, 366 Atlantic
Ave. at Hoyt Street in Boerum Hill, (718) 422-1147; and Lingo,
247 W. 19th St. in Manhattan, (212) 929-4676.
To hold a trunk show in your own home, or to make an appointment
with the designers, call (646) 369-8609 or e-mail info@artwareny.com..
May
13, 2006 edition |. Read
more about Brooklyn Weddings
Back
to Top .|.
Return Home
|
|
