Maureen Jennings is a long time friend and I was so excited when she told me about her new jewelery designs.. Since we first spoke she has started her own company called Spikes Jewelry... I was going to interview Maureen but after reading her story. I opted to use her own words... I hope you enjoy....
When I was 16 yrs old my parents dragged me to Ireland with their three brats. They were afraid I'd have a month of parties, which I would have. I thought my life was over for the next month. When I arrived at the town my Mother grew up in on the southwest coast I found out that everyone in the British Isles came to this little town, (Ballybunion, County Kerry), for a summer of parties. I ditched my family every chance I could. They wanted to see the Ring of Kerry and kiss the Blarney Stone while all I wanted to do was get stoned with the pot I smuggled on the plane. I pretended to be carsick, We all agreed to let me hang out at my Grandmothers's house while they went sightseeing.
I was warned to stay away from the gypsies in town, Europe is full of them. They carried a bad reputation and you could usually find them where the tourists were. The Irish called them 'Tinkers'. When we were driving around you could see them on the roads in multi-colored horse drawn caravans. Growing up on the Southside of Chicago, I never saw anything like it and was fascinated by this. I was drawn to the brightly painted caravans like a bee to a flower, not to mention wanting to go anywhere your parents told you not to go.
On one of my first trips to town I met three Tinkers sitting on the sidewalk next to a a display of jewelry. The jewelry was made from nails that were bent, wrapped and linked together with copper wire. I thought they were the coolest so I bought one. Everyday that I came to town I would go by there to say hello. They would be sitting there all day passing the time between sales making more jewelry. Being an artist/painter myself, I would watch them.
As much as I was warned that Gypsies were hustlers and thieves, I saw these guys as artists. They were quite friendly. I was able to ask them about the war in Ireland where they were more than eager to set the story straight for me. At 16 I didn't care much for politics in America. I didn't have time for television let alone the news. It was the seventies and the war to the North was in full swing. As often as I would ask someone about it I knew that people were dying over religion and it made no sense to me. The only difference that I could see between Catholics and Protestants was the Pope, and who cares about the Pope? (Have you seen Sinead O'Connor lately?)
The Tinkers told me all about the War, The story that can't be told by Our English allies in America. Years later movies would be telling the same story about those times in Ireland. They talked Irish politics while showing me how to make jewelry. As if it were a requirement, they only taught me how to make them because I was a Yank. They knew that I would not set up shop across the street from them. As an Irish American, they felt the need to educate me about the troubles of the Land.
When I went back to Chicago I picked up the Craft of making Jewelry. The following summer I sold as many as I could make. I would sit and put together about twenty at a time, tie them to my belt hoop and sell them everywhere. I bought my first guitar that year with necklace money. A year earlier I had started to learn with a borrowed guitar. As a teenager I had more money than a wild kid should have. I used the jewelry as currency, anything I wanted or needed I would trade them for. Within a year I had sold so many of them in the Chicagoland area. I was always going to the local rock clubs to see shows or concerts. Hanging out was my new line of work and that's where I made my money. With the drinking age reduced to 19, that meant that if you were a 16 yr old you could get in with a fake ID.
I was making and selling jewelry till I moved to San Francisco. I couldn't really find a place for the craft in my life. I thought about it many times during the punk era but couldn't really see how to make it happen. It all looked so punk to me and it seemed to fit well in a musical world.. When the internet came about I was able to get my hands on the materials that the original European Jewelry was made from. I messed around with them for a year or so trying to do something new with them. My original designs were cool when I first did them, but, then again, times have changed. I needed to bring them to an absolute new place and make them Modern. I'm pretty excited about my Designs. I couldn't be doing this again without being excited about it again. You couldn't put my old designs next to my new Designs and know that the same person had done them. It's a bit like playing music, you have to please yourself before you please anyone else. It's impossible to grow as an artist unless your whole heart is in it.
Band people were my greatest customers, I often just gave them away to the people in the band. I might have given a few to the Cheap Trick guys. I don't remember whether I did or not but I saw them a couple of times in the clubs. It was always my behavior to approach the band, it would make sense that I would have given them one or two necklaces. I met a lot of famous people when I was a kid, all of my guitar heroes. (Cheap Trick was a bar band at the time). The first time I saw Cheap Trick was completely accidental. I've never seen a band like that in a club so it was a night to remember. We were in Geneva, Wisconsin at a rock club that they were playing. What a blast we had that night. We walked away saying their name over and over so as not to forget the name of the band. I had one more chance to see them in a club before they hit the radio. When I saw their band logo I couldn't help but remember that was us walking out of the club saying their names. Picture That Seventies Show, throw a bunch of drugs in the mix. I saw them again years later (the late eighties) at The Stone in San Francisco with my bandmates who were all from Chicago. We used to cover one of their songs in the Chicago tradition, (The House Is Rocking.)
I attribute my Different Designs to musical styles, since in my life they have been hand in hand from the start. I have a division of my jewelry dedicated to rock, punk rock, motorcycles, and/or black leather called Spikes-Jewelry, (www.spikes-jewelry.com) The name is not only punk but appropriately named, they are nails. The other side of my Designs are targeted for Country and Western, Cowboys, Horse Lovers, & your basic "country Bumpkins", That division is called "Spikes and Spurs."
In honor of coming out this year with "Spikes Jewelry" I am dedicating 25% of all my proceeds to the SF Aids Foundation and the LA Gay & Lesbian Center through an ACL Rider. The ACL Rider that I sponsor trains all year for the event held in June. Unlike Lance Armstrong, she's an althlete with a cause.
Spikes Jewelry might not be for everyone, but they will always turn a head. They are just so different, yet they fit in. I believe that I will have great commercial success.
I think my jewelry will support the other artistic loves of my life. After all is said and done, Life is just another song.
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