Eni Oken

a jewelry business success story

© by Eni Oken; all rights reserved

Eni Oken of Eni Oken's Jewelry is a Brazilian jewelry artist currently based in Los Angeles. Formerly a computer graphics artist for more than 17 years, Eni transitioned officially to jewelry making in the last few years, adapting her knowledge of fantasy art to create handwoven wearable art.

Eni connects gemstones, silver beads and other elements together into highly ornate pieces using hair-thin silver wire coiled with techniques adapted from traditional needlelace weaving, which have been around for centuries. Her pieces usually follow animal themes or honor contemporary events, such as the recent tragedy of the Tsunami or the attack to the sharks in the Aquarium in Long Beach.

Also a teacher and instructor, Eni shares information about her work and techniques willingly. Her Eni Oken's Jewelry website offers numerous wire jewelry making tutorials, CDs and online courses.

1) How did you first start making jewelry? And are you self-taught, or have you had formal jewelry instruction?

My connection with jewelry making has been on and off, for a very long time. When I was 10 years old, I used to make wire bracelets out of the colored wires found in telephone cables. Even though one of my first career choices was to become a jewelry designer, my professional life took me elsewhere – I graduated as an architect and worked as a computer graphics artist for 17 years, focusing on game design and fantasy art.

All along, jewelry making was always a passionate hobby for me but I never took it as a serious business until recently. Around the year 2000, a close friend helped me revitalize jewelry making techniques a bit more seriously. However, shortly after that I became a mother and had to shift focus again. In 2003 I decided to officially abandon computer graphics and to fully embrace jewelry making as a full-time business.

So it’s been a bumpy ride… I learned a few things through books, but most of my techniques seem to stem back to needle-lace and fiber-weaving techniques my grandmother taught me.

2) How does your background in architecture and digital fantasy art affect your approach to jewelry design?

Although I have no formal background in jewelry making, I have extensive training in many other artistic areas. People who see my new work in jewelry art and who knew me from my previous fantasy art career tell me I have continued with much of the same whimsical and over-ornate style, just changing the medium. I believe my previous artistic training does in fact affect heavily my jewelry design choices today.

3) Do you sketch out your intricate jewelry designs before beginning, or does each piece evolve on its own as you create it?

Both: designing a piece is an interesting process. Almost 99% of the time, the design starts from a seed idea: it can be a contemporary event I hear on the news, an object, an obscure holiday, or any other thing that happens to catch my eye at the moment. Sometimes it can even be a children's book illustration (like The Pond bangle).

Whatever it is, once the seed idea is generated, I immediately write it down in my journal so it won’t be forgotten and lost. Sometimes the seed idea will spark a design right away, and sometimes that idea will stay "cooking" in my mind for several days.

When I do happen to draw actual designs, then I try to make two or three variations, so there is still some flexibility when executing the final design, allowing for intuition to play a certain role. The final piece usually turns out to be a "blend" of all sketches and ideas.

Sometimes, instead of sketching, I will simply take a seed idea out of the journal and just create a piece intuitively. It's important to have a specific technique well established when working this way, since it can be difficult to develop design and technique at the same time. For example, since right now I'm very comfortable creating coiled bangles, I can just work on a design without any planning and without worrying if the coils are going to be straight or if the stones are going to hold together.

4) Your use of color is one of the things I love in your digital art and your jewelry. Can you tell us about your approach to color?

I spent a very large portion of my former artistic career “experimenting” with color. I also taught color planning for a while, so I’m highly aware of color use in art and fashion. Color is very subjective and can have personal, psychological and cultural influence, of which we are not always completely aware.

My approach to color has always been the same: if a color scheme is not selected BEFORE working on the actual design, the final result will never convey a strong color-based message.

According to various color theorists, there are three types of artists, which can be classified in terms of “color maturity”: 1) those who use color strictly according to fashion or current trends; 2) those who use only colors they personally like best or according to their personal taste; 3) those who use color in a universal way, selecting colors according to the requirements of each project. This last one is considered a more mature artist, capable of using color independently of taste or trends.

Artists who are interested in experimenting with color should start slowly, using almost monochromatic palettes at first, selecting one hue and varying only the brightness and saturation. As confidence increases, they can attempt to use palettes with two or even three hues, along with all their variations of brightness and saturation.. If color is to be an important consideration in a project, artists should avoid using more than 4 hues, since it can remove the strength of the color palette.

Here is an example of how to use a monochromatic palette: if the main hue selected is to be orange, then the colors “light peach”, “salmon” and “rust brown” can also be used within the project, since they are considered only variations of the hue. So when I say “monochromatic”, it doesn’t mean using only one single color. From this example you can also see how a 3 or 4 hue palette color can unfold into various different shades, which can be harder to control.

During the various transitions in my career, interestingly enough, my own beliefs in regards to color study have not changed. However, I noticed two differences since switching from computer graphics to jewelry making:

a) As a CG artist, my color selections were based almost entirely on personal taste; while now as a jewelry artist, my selections are more universal using colors according to the theme of each project, even when I don’t personally care for the color swatch myself.

b) If, however, one aspect of my color awareness has matured a bit, I feel like it has fallen back on another: as a computer graphics artist, I was comfortable with complex palettes of 3 or 4 hues; now as a jewelry artist I tend to use only two hues at a time.

5) Your website is extremely professional and a real visual treat. Do you have any website success tips for jewelry artists?

I’ve had a personal website for the last 10 years, and consider it to be a permanent work-in-progress. I have always managed and built the website myself: I recommend learning basic html and preferably knowing how to use Photoshop and a good website builder program. My previous experience with computer graphics knowledge came in handy when building and maintaining my own site, since relying on webmasters to do minor changes can slow down the website’s evolution.

Sure, artists don’t need to do all the coding themselves; all major configuration and set-up can be done by an experienced web designer; however, keeping the everyday updates is easier and faster if done by the artist.

Updating the site yourself helps to keep the site fresh and with new content; and that attracts more visitors per month. More people are likely to bookmark or link to a site which has constant changes and to come back periodically to see what’s new. Increase in the number of faithful and new visitors is directly proportional to how frequently the site is updated with new content.

Speaking of content, it’s also important to remember that online customers are interested not only in products, but most importantly, in information. People want to know interesting things about the artist, how jewelry is constructed or its meaning. Providing interesting and free content attracts more people to a website, even when the main purpose of the site is to sell commercial products.

For example, if I’m shopping for a digital camera, I’ll be more likely to purchase one from a site which gives me feature comparison between cameras and photography tips. The same thing can be applied to jewelry.

6) How did you first get the idea of providing online jewelry tutorials, classes, and lessons?

As a computer graphics artist, I was always involved in teaching art and software. Since that industry is 100% computerized and technologically advanced, I decided to offer online classes to reach students globally. When I first started, learning over the Internet (e-learning) was just in its infancy, and it took a while to find the right “format” for a virtual classroom.

When I switched to jewelry making, I thought I could adapt the same method to this industry; however, since jewelry makers are a bit more hesitant in using computers, the classes were not well accepted at first. So I decided to create the individual downloadable lessons, which have the advantage of being very inexpensive, allowing the artist to select specific techniques to learn, a little at a time.

Now, after almost 2 years of online tutorials, the more expensive online classes are starting to pick-up – mostly people who have tried the individual tutorials and want a full spectrum of the techniques. I also sell CDs with tutorials, and it seems like people are finally comfortable buying information and lessons in e-book format.

7) What's involved in creating one of your tutorials? And how long does it take from starting a tutorial to publishing the final version on your site?

It’s important to me that the tutorials be clear and with plenty of illustrations. The first step of creating a tutorial is finding a project which will allow very clear steps, suitable for teaching. Not all projects can be taught online, especially if they are intuitively created or very organic.

I repeat a design 3 times before deciding if it’s good enough to create a tutorial, so that I can get all the steps down without hesitation. Once a project is selected, I re-create the design once again, taking photographs of each and every step with a digital camera. Usually, hundreds of pictures are created for one single tutorial.

After photographing, I write the text and select the appropriate pictures, trying to be as direct and clear as possible. Out of all those hundreds of images, less than 30 will make it to the final tutorial. Each image is adjusted, resized, cropped and compressed using Photoshop to produce an image where the detail of the step can be clearly seen.

After that, the tutorial text and images are formatted and then a final Adobe Acrobat PDF file is created.

The final step is to publish the tutorial: paid tutorials have to be published in a specific way allowing buyers to download them immediately after payment. Free tutorials are published directly, just as regular webpages. Links and shopping cart set-up are established in my site and newsletters send out the announcement of the new tutorial.

The entire process can take about two or three weeks of solid work for a single tutorial, including preparation and selection time.

8) Which of your jewelry tutorials has been the most popular?

There are three tutorials that have been best sellers: the coiled bezel wrap, the briolette flower and recently, the coiled bangle.

Although this last one is really advanced, it has not scared off jewelry makers eager to learn new designs – in fact, it has sold almost more than any other tutorial I have posted.

Dozens of people have sent me pictures of the jewelry they have created with the tutorials, sometimes with interesting and unusual variations. It’s been interesting to see how people adapt and choose different stones and colors.

9) Your creative journey has taken some interesting twists and turns. Do you foresee your jewelry and your business evolving into new areas in the future?

I’ve learned by now that it is impossible to foresee completely where my professional life is going to take me. I have goals, for sure, which are vital for the success of any business (read the next questions below), but how I will reach them depends largely on unforeseen events. My personal goals are to continue establishing myself as a “jewelry artist”, creating unique jewelry and not going into mass production of commercial work. Teaching is also a fundamental part of my career – it is as important as producing new designs.

10) What is one thing you've experimented with in your business that you would NOT do again?

One reoccurring problem I’ve experienced in the past (even when working in computer graphics) is learning how to avoid the temptation of taking on work which I will not be able to handle or will not enjoy enough. As a one-woman-show, I have limited production capability, and when luck strikes it’s difficult to say no to offers which seem to be exceptionally interesting at the time. I’ve learned that no matter how tempting, those offers usually turn out to cost me a heavy price, paid with health or creativity. I’m no longer willing to make those sacrifices.

For example, in regards to my choice of becoming a jewelry artist (versus becoming a jewelry designer). As a jewelry artist, I can create unique one of a kind pieces, which I make myself with little help. These are usually more expensive, take longer to execute and demand specific clientele who understands the work that is put into the jewelry. The production is limited to my own ability to create.

If I had chosen to be a jewelry designer, I would have to focus on designing more affordable jewelry, and manage a production team in order to meet high quantity sales demands. I’ve had offers of becoming a jewelry designer, but I had to learn to force myself to say NO to those offers which take me away from my own goals or which demand more than what I can or want to produce.

11) If you were starting a jewelry business today, but with the experience you have now, what would you do to make it successful?

In some ways I am still starting a new business, however, one thing is clear to me now, after working so many years as a self-employed artist: beginners need to know WHERE they want to go in order to get there. We hear business people talk about “business plans” all the time, but we never really give it a second look.

If I had to start all over again, I would sit down and think carefully what is it that I want to do with this and where I want to be in 5 and 10 years. I’d make a written contract with myself, stating clearly what those objectives are. Every 6 months, I would read again the contract and see if I am in the process of achieving those goals and if they are still realistic. And I would not expect to have any significant results in less than 2 years of working towards my objectives.

Sure, it’s not to say that “contracts” (especially of the personal kind) cannot be amended or changed, but it is important to keep the focus on what is really relevant and meaningful to us.

12) Do you have any other advice for jewelry artists?

This is a competitive industry, both in terms of design and price point. Creating something truly different is almost impossible - however, you *can* establish a niche for yourself. To create designs that are somewhat unique in the market, I recommend trying a technique I developed for my students of fantasy art:

Every handcrafted product is created using at least 4 criteria:

• Technique
  
• Design
  
• Materials
  
• Application.

In order to create something unique, one of those criteria needs to be changed radically, creating a “twist”.

The first step is to examine the average wire wrapped jewelry:

• Technique: wire wrapping, wrapped chain.

• Design: traditional rosary chains, two wrapped loops with a bead in between.

• Materials: silver wire and beads, pearls.

• Application: conventional jewelry, necklaces.

If, using the Twist Formula, you change one or more of those criteria, you can have an original “twist” to the work which can be appreciated by a select audience, creating a niche:

• Technique: knitting

• Design: food, fruit

• Materials: silver wire and wooden or ceramic beads

• Application: conventional jewelry, bracelets, necklaces.

The first criteria, knitting, is changed, but is not uncommonly found. The second criteria, design, is changed in this example to something radical, unique, such as food and fruit. This is the “twist”.

Remember, to apply the formula correctly, it is necessary to find out first the most average description to one’s product and then change one or more criteria radically. I used to teach these principles in my fantasy design classes, and it never fails to produce something uniquely interesting.

A description of my some of own jewelry can be as follows:

• Technique: basket coiling and needlelace

• Design: themed (contemporary events) or animals

• Materials: silver wire and beads

• Application: conventional jewelry, pendants, bracelets.

Here is another example which appeared some 10 years ago, and which is now one of the highest selling niches of jewelry and personal adornment, especially with younger audiences:

• Technique: commercial casting

• Design: clean, minimalist or neon

• Materials: silver

• Application: BODY jewelry, piercing.

One of my favorite jewelry brands (which will remain unnamed), uses what I can describe as the following formula:

• Technique: chainmaille

• Design: bezels simulating architectural tension cables

• Materials: tiny chains and gemstones

• Application: jewelry, earrings, necklaces, etc.

So I recommend to those who want to make a difference, to find a niche and stay at it for a while. There is one but important pitfall to avoid: once the audience gets to know a specific artist for a defined specialty, they may not want that artist to ever change - and at the same time, they will always expect new ideas, *within* the confines of that specialty. It can be tricky to keep ideas fresh and new, and at the same time avoid boredom or repetition.

Note from Rena:
Eni, thank you so much for this fascinating view of your jewelry business and your process of creating online jewelry tutorials. The lessons you just shared on color planning and the Twist Formula are very helpful. I want to encourage our readers to visit Eni's gorgeous Eni Oken's Jewelry website - not only is it an inspiring visual treat, but you'll also be able to download some excellent jewelry making tutorials and learn some new techniques!

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