Swag, Nantucket-style
After appearing in the Golden Globes' Style Lounge, island jeweler Jessica Hicks has become a Hollywood favorite
BY MARLI GUZZETTA INDEPENDENT ARTS EDITOR
Jessica Hicks calls herself a "PR nightmare."

ROB BENCHLEY/The Independent

A mother to one small child with one on the way, she lives on an island 30 miles off the mainland and likes to do everything on her own.

But after an appearance at Kari Feinstein's Style Lounge at the Golden Globes last winter, the jeweler who owns Posh boutique on Old South Wharf has adorned the insurable earlobes, necks and wrists of stars like Eva Longoria, Beyonce, Jessica Alba and Hayden Panettiere. As a result, Ok! Lucky, InTouch and Us are only some of the magazines that have included Hicks' jewelry in the last year.

"Things have really taken off for me since I did the Style Lounge," said Hicks, who handmakes all of her jewelry, "from start to finish."

The first time Hicks saw her jewelry in a magazine, Beyonce was wearing one of her pieces in Us magazine. "The feeling was hard to describe. It was just, 'Wow," she said. "Seeing celebrities wearing my pieces in national magazines makes me feel as though I've really made it. Everything I've ever wanted and worked hard for in my life is happening, and it's a great feeling."

A Massachusetts native, Hicks arrived on island 10 summers ago. Then a recent graduate of UMass Dartmouth, she found seasonal work at Diana Kim England and Jewel of the Isle, hoping only for a summer hiatus before returning to the mainland to start her adult life in September. But by December, she still hadn't gotten the sand out of her shoes when she met her future husband at The Chicken Box.

That one summer working at island jewelry stores became several years in island retail. After work and on the weekends, Hicks began making jewelry, using sanding and grinding discs and drills to customize the surfaces with texture and lines.

"There is something about using this type of process that makes the jewelry appear to be handcrafted, as opposed to mass produced," Hicks said. "Some of the results are sandedor scratched-looking surfaces, which I think gives my jewelry depth and originality."

When Hicks' daughter, Reese, was born three-and-a half years ago, Hicks decided to go into business for herself.

"When you're working for yourself, you have no choice but to make it work, because you need to survive," said Hicks, who began by selling her pieces out of Main Street's Vis-à-Vis, where she once worked, and also out of her own home, where she would set up a display in the living room and invite customers over to view the line. "But after doing this a few times a week, it was getting exhausting having to clean (ugh) and set up. I thought it would be a great outlet to have a store to set up my jewelry the way I pictured it looking," Hicks said.

Reese remains one of Hicks' biggest professional influences. "She's 3 and a half and notices everything," said Hicks, who extended her line this year to include kaleidoscope, giraffe and zebra patterns, cut out of metal. "When I read to her or see an animal, I see things differently, because she is always asking about them. Everything I look at, I think, 'Those would make a great pattern for an earring.'"

The zebra and giraffe lines receiving most of the national press originated with one of Reese's storybooks. Local customers have tended to favor her Lorraine collection - pieces whose surfaces are drilled in random, but balanced patterns.

"I'm seven and a half months pregnant and I still handmake all my jewelry. It is getting harder for me to keep up, but I just can't seem to stop," Hicks said. "People tell me to hire someone or outsource, but I just don't want to. I think the fact that I make it all makes the jewelry even

more special." I