The Bee's Knees

During a trunk show we held at the boutique I work at recently, I had the pleasure of meeting the jewelry designer Jene Despain. Her work has been carried at the boutique I work at for some time now, but I had never met her in person and I have to say that it is rare to meet someone that is so friendly and compassionate towards her work. Jene DeSpain came to Seattle for her trunk show to debut her new jewelry line for the Fall called the Black Honey Collection. This collection is rather different than her past collections that focused more on art deco and 1920’s inspired designers. Upon seeing the Black Honey Collection, I feel in love with it instantly. It’s all very wearable and has very simple, but stylish designs. DeSpain works with 14k gold and does a unique gold fill process that ensures no peeling or discoloration for any of her pieces. Her other metal of choice is gun metal, which looks like an oxidized silver, so thus it is almost black. How can you not be interested in something that is made of a material called gun metal? While the collection is not available yet online it has come to several small boutiques as she does her trunk show tour. Below are a few examples of her work:

Regretfully I could not find a picture of the piece I bought (all pictures above are from an interview the designer did in Portland that is featured on her website). I purchased one of DeSpains wrap bracelets, which was a leather strip wrapped that around your wrist twice and was studded had little gold studs. She had several different style wrap bracelets and all featured this amazing gold clasp that had a hexagon honeycomb shape and then was hooked by a gold stud that resembles a bullet. Attention to detail such as the clasp on her pieces is really what intrigued me most about her designs. Another piece I loved that is not pictured are the honeycomb rings. One of her rings is made up of three connected honeycomb shapes that fit over your pinky, ring, and middle finger as one ring.

As for the artist herself, Jene DeSpain works and lives in Brooklyn, NY and was a very interesting person to talk to and truly very excited about her work. She was more than eager to talk to me and customers about the process of how she made her pieces and how important it is to her to use unique materials that will not become flawed over time. Hearing her describe her process and designs was amazing and I overall greatly enjoyed meeting her as she is not only a talented jewelry designer but a very outgoing and welcoming person. Another enjoyable side note side note about DeSpain is that she learned jewelry design at the Fashion Institute of Technology (the college I currently attend. 

Check out her designs and more information about the designer at her website (Black Honey is currently not featured to be purchase but will be coming soon): 
http://www.jenedespain.com