The Empire Strikes Back!

John Benjamin Hickey
Wearing The Empire Bracelet

We're so proud that our Empire Bracelet from the Egyptian Collection will be worn by Emmy nominee John Benjamin Hickey. The Empire Bracelet was prominently displayed at the 2013 GBK Primetime Emmy Gift Lounge, when John saw the copper version he fell in love with it! Displays generally don't leave the exhibit, but we always make exceptions for our favorite celebs. :) His quote to the representative from The Artisan Group was "I love these bracelets! Wow! This is fantastic! It goes great with my watch. I will absolutely wear this all the time!" We love hearing from our customers who tell us how happy they are with our handcrafted gems. In this case – The Empire strikes back!

More about John...
He won the 2011 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play for his performance as Felix Turner in The Normal Heart. On Broadway, he originated the role of Arthur in Terrence McNally's Tony Award-winning play Love! Valour! Compassion! in 1995, a role he would recreate for the 1997 film version. He played Clifford Bradshaw in the 1998 revival of Cabaret, which won the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical, and played Reverend John Hale in the Tony-nominated 2002 revival of Arthur Miller's The Crucible.

On television, he played Sean, the homeless brother of Cathy (played by actress Laura Linney), the main character on the Showtime series The Big C in which he was nominated for outstanding supporting actor in a miniseries or a movie.

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article John Benjamin Hickey, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.

If it's FREE it's for me!

Would you like to own the Cobra Bangle we gifted to the celebrities at the 2013 GBK Primetime Emmy Gift Lounge? Now you have a chance to win one! It's simple..just follow the instructions below to enter. Good Luck!!!

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

And the Emmy goes to...

We are so excited to be participating in the 2013 GBK Primetime Emmy Gift Lounge! 

This is an invitation-only luxury celebrity gift lounge hosted by GBK Productions on September 20-21, 2013 at an exclusive location in Hollywood, California, in honor of the The 2013 Primetime Emmys Nominees and Presenters. 

Our Isis necklace and Empire bracelets will be prominently featured on display at The Artisan Group's exhibit, and all attending celebrities will receive our Cobra bracelet in their swag bags. This event will also be attended by nearly fifty press and media outlets.

The Isis necklace, Empire and Cobra  bracelets are a part of our new fall Egyptian Collection.  The Isis necklace is a tiger's eye focal pendant surrounded by crystals, tiger's eye and pearls carefully wrapped in silver-filled wire. The Empire bracelets are exclusively for the men, and they were handcrafted using several chainmaille techniques while using a variety of metals. We created 100 Cobra bracelets for the coveted Artisan Group swag bags, they were coiled with silver-filled wire on a copper base with lampwork glass beads as a center focal.  Also, not featured in the lounge but an important part of the collection is the Nefertiti multi-chain necklace photographed on the right.  To learn more about our 
Egyptian Collection visit essentialsetc.net. 

Essentials' Spotlight: Friends that Sparkle

Name:  Sarah

Hometown: Brooklyn, Pennsylvania

Favorite movie: Love, Actually

Favorite type of jewelry: Bracelets

Sarah, who currently lives in Boston, works as a media relations professional, loves the beach and boating, and would rather have her feet in the grass or sand, instead of shoes. She has loved bracelets since her grandmother bought her first ones when she was 6 years old.  The bracelets by Essentials Etc. are some of her favorites! She particularly loves the black bauble bracelet, which she says goes with everything! Sarah would highly recommend Essentials Etc. as the source for all jewelry and in fact, gets all of her pieces there now!

We love Sarah as our customer.  She has been with us since we started! Sarah has attended many of our events and supported us in many other ways.

Check out more of our Friends that Sparkle!

Is Jewelry Art?

Some people don't always consider jewelry designing a form of art.  I challenge all the skeptics to take a trip to their local museums and take notice how the featured jewelry exhibits are highly regarded as art. I design my own jewelry and designing, in and of itself, is an art. If one creates art, it follows that one would be deemed an artist.

Sample Collection From Our Trip 

During a recent trip to the
Fuller Craft Museum I was fortunate enough to catch the jewelry exhibit - Adornments & Delights: Five Jewelers Courting Nature. The exhibit consist of five extraordinary jewelers who are highly accomplished and nationally recognized artists. The artists featured are Susan Hamlet, Linda Kindler Priest, Claire Sanford, Mary Hughes, and Caro-Gray Bosca. This exhibition focuses on their unique voices exploring nature. The exhibit will be shown until June 16, 2013,  I highly recommend a visit and you will be a true believer in jewelry as an art-form!

Outside the Fuller Craft Museum

I love this museum because everything is handcrafted even down to the benches that you sit on. The entire place is so inspirational. Throughout my travels I go to museums for inspiration, and not just for the jewelry exhibits, I get inspired by all of the collections. The culture,  colors, textures and creative thinking always moves me. I get the immediate urge to run home and create something!

The next time you hear the age old debate...is jewelry making a craft or art? Take a look at my jewelry collection and other talented jewelry artists, observe how every piece and every collection differs with fine art incorporated. It's truly amazing when a solid piece of wire is molded into something beautiful AND useful. Now that's a work of art! I guess you could argue that I'm more of an Artisan and I won't dispute that because I craft several of my pieces, but I also design, draw, sculpt, and even paint when making jewelry. I consider myself an artist as well, not just because I studied art in school, mostly because I have a defined skill to produce quality work. So feel free to call me an Artisan or Artists because I have so many hobbies that fall into either category.  Hence my blog title...Crafty Addictions.

What do you think?  Is jewelry making art? 

Seeing Stars

Pearl Cluster Earrings 

2013 has started off extremely well for Essentials Etc.! We were selected to create jewelry for the 2013 GBK Oscars Gifting Lounge. We decided to make Essentials exclusive Pearl Cluster Earrings for the event, and once I received approval from The Artisan Group to make the earrings that's when the fun began!

Gifted for the 2013 GBK
Oscars Celebrity Gift Lounge

100 products were due in California (shipped from Massachusetts) on February 8, in order to get to the lounge in time for the February 22/23 event. Mind you, I was selected late November and still had holiday orders to fulfill…YIKES! I also needed to order materials and packaging because of course I didn't have enough materials to make 100 pieces, plus I wanted the packaging to be special for the stars! Needless to say I was working with a very tight deadline, but I was determined to make it. I recruited my family members to help with this most important task. Instead of using my studio, which could not accommodate all of my helpers, I did a dining room take over. I set up tables, lighting, and food…and of course some old school music! I scheduled work dates for everyone and tasks that they could handle (including my husband…who now knows how to bend and cut headpins). I am so grateful for all the support I received from my family. Hopefully one day I can repay them all.

"Making earrings for the stars"

Every year we receive an invitation from the City of Brockton’s Mayor to sell our jewelry at the Holiday Bazaar, at this time the word was out that I was “going” to the Oscars. The Mayor was gracious and very supportive of my new endeavor. We were also invited to the 15th Annual African Festival & Marketplace again this year and between these two events we created quite a buzz in my hometown of Brockton. I appeared on two local cable television shows and in a PSA to promote the Festival and to talk about my participation in the Oscars. I also received a call, for the second time in 3 years to be featured in the Brockton Enterprise print and online edition (read article). The first time it was a feature story about my business, but this time they wanted to discuss the Oscars...but of course! I was told I would appear in the Friday, February 22 issue, when I picked up the paper I was surprised to see my article on the front page! What a treat! When I attended the African Festival and the Mayor got on stage to address the crowded room she gave me a HUGE shout-out! She also said she would wear the necklace that she purchased from me while watching the Oscars. I’m so honored!

The Oscars aired this past weekend check out some of the stars that received our package. We are hoping something really great comes out of our new found “fame”, but either way we're happy just to be nominated! He-he!