Renee E. Rokero was living vicariously through the tweets and Facebook comments of actors talking up the swag, or gifts, they’d picked up Sunday in the Luxury Celebrity Gift Lounge at the 2012 Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony.
"I was so excited seeing others getting paparazzi photos and celebrities tweeting swag-bag gifters. I’m just waiting my turn," said Rokero, creator of Kolohe Gurl Jewelry, who was given the opportunity, as a member of invitation-only The Artisan Group, to include her business card in each of the bags, the first step toward presenting her work to the stars.
Come January, it’ll be her turn to offer up 100 pieces of her Kolohe Gurl Jewelry in swag bags destined to reach award nominees for the Golden Globe Awards, and in February, the Academy Awards A-listers. Sometimes all a fledgling design company needs to do is have its wares turn up on a celebrity to ignite desire, and Rokero, on the verge of a commercial breakthrough, has a few more months to consider the consequences for her handcrafted business.
She designed a Plumeria Maile cuff for "Parks and Recreation" star Amy Poehler, and a piece for Mariska Hargitay of "Law & Order: SVU," but Kolohe Gurl’s presence at next year’s awards ceremonies may lead to more celebrity clientele, more buzz and ultimately more sales.
It’s a heady experience for Rokero, a marriage counselor in private practice, for whom making jewelry has been as natural as breathing since she was a child learning the craft at the lap of her parents.
"I come from a really artsy family so I was always drawing and designing. I was scrapbooking before it became popular. As a family, we’d make things like shell bracelets and macrame to sell at swap meets in the 1970s. I’d sell my jewelry for 50 cents and sometimes had a hard time parting with them."
Creating was her idea of play, so she never thought of it as a career direction. It was just one of many things she did, perhaps out of restlessness.
"I make everything: bedcovers, curtains. I lay flooring, I knock walls down, I train dogs. I rearrange furniture in bedrooms. My home changes by season."
So when it came to her jewelry, "I never had an ‘aha!’ moment," she said, until an ankle cuff she designed for herself five years ago started getting a lot of attention from friends. It featured a string of small shells dangling from a chain, and she said men and women considered it "really sexy and really naughty."
A childhood nickname came to mind and Kolohe Gurl Jewelry was born. Although she sells simple wire-and-shell or -pearl bangles typical of beach jewelry, in the past few years she’s become known for her kinetic pinwheel rings and copyrighted plumeria design, with each petal meticulously hand-shaped and bent with pliers. Her commitment to personal handiwork is one reason she’s reluctant to seek help in making them, because, though no two are alike, her artistry is evident.
A cage-style cherry blossom pendant with a spinning center has 12 soldered joints and dozens of individually applied soldered metal ball tips to represent the flower’s stigma-tipped pistils. A cherry blossom necklace runs about $140 in sterling silver, or $175 for earrings. A gold-filled plumeria necklace is $98 and a plumeria bangle with a shell center is about $110.
"I try to get the pieces to look three-dimensional. It’s definitely a labor of love because it takes a day to make a pair of earrings."
But save for her website, www.kolohegurl.com, and Etsy online store, her more elaborate jewelry is hard to find. Because of her lack of formal training, she said, "I’m a bit shy about showing my jewelry. I hate going to stores and showing. Ugh!"
Her jewelry came to the attention of The Artisan Group, which invited her to become a member a year ago. The group was formed to help artisan businesses introduce their products to celebrities, industry leaders and media through participation in major award show gift lounges, while also offering members guidance in sales and marketing.
"At the time, I didn’t feel I was ready. It took a year of telling myself I’ve got something special and I need to take it to the next level."
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Find Kolohe Gurl Jewelry at www.kolohegurl.com/Etsy-Store.html.
