Conversations with Jennifer Gerard

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennifer Gerard. She and her team share their story with us below:

Cleveland Rocks and Beads is a creative venture by Jennifer Gerard. Jennifer has been in the business of beads and jewelry for over 30 years, including many years as a direct importer of handcrafted creations from Nepal, Thailand, Indonesia, China, Japan, and the Philippines.

For many years she traveled to Asia collecting art and artwork to wholesale to stores across the US, however, the constant travel made it difficult to be at home with her young family. Cleveland Rocks and Beads opened almost nine years ago as a result of needing a change of pace and a more permanent location. It was immediately embraced by the Cleveland community.

Jennifer has always approached her business with three goals in mind:

– Support artists and artistry
– Build community
– Engage in sustainable business relationships with people through fair trade

She continues to support artistry by sourcing unique materials and encouraging artists to create within the store where they teach numerous classes. On any given day you may see Holly, making lamp-work beads on her torch, Claire, wire-weaving a pendant, or Liz, making a fabulous bead-embroidered work of art. They also host trunk sales for local customers/artists and ‘Meet the Artist events. The space is used as a meeting place for community gatherings, social groups, team building, birthday parties, and much more.

Jennifer still supports several of her original vendors in Asia who she knows personally and now she has developed a large network of local and US-based creators to supply unique and creative components for jewelry making as well.

The shop is often used by teachers as an educational resource and not only Art teachers. “We are a Rock and Crystal shop as well as a Bead Store. Many artists work with the rough stone materials in their creations, but we also have teachers who use our shop to collect rock samples, geodes, and fossils for their science classes. In the summer we have hosted several summer camps and one award-winning space-themed summer camp. It’s always fun to have a new challenge!”

“We seem to attract people from all across the country and around the world. We are host to many visitors who are coming to the Cleveland Clinic as patients or staff but it’s our Guitar String Bracelet class that brings in the most out-of-state and international travelers. This special class is offered exclusively as a Cleveland AirBnB experience with a ‘Rock Hall’ theme! Wherever you are from, you are welcome at Cleveland Rocks and Beads.”

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
We are lucky that many people in Cleveland Heights want us here and thank us for being here but we have also had customers who come in to ask us how to make something or fix something for free and have even gotten measurements and then unabashedly said, “Thanks, I’m going to order it online!”

Most small brick-and-mortar stores are disappearing across the country and the world. The internet, while a spectacular boon to large businesses, has literally crushed the life out of local stores. While the internet is great at speed and homogeneity, it is not great as a creative resource and it is destructive to local economies.

We have hundreds of thousands of tiny little objects in our store, there is no possible way to list all these little things which change constantly and that are often one of a kind, in an economical way, although we have tried. You do have to come in to shop with us in person.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
As a teaching bead store, we are known for our creative solutions to Jewelry Repair. We get a lot of the ordinary repairs like ring sizing, stone setting, re-stringing, etc. and we also get custom designs, re-imagining old jewelry into modern designs.  This year we have replaced the rhinestones on shoes and belt buckles, beaded handbags, created new scales for Lady Justice, made a ceremonial crown, created a top for a wedding cake, repaired wind chimes, and made magic wands. We decided not to repair someone’s partial for them, but we were impressed by her trust in us!

What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
We like people. There is nothing more attractive to customers than feeling they are welcome and appreciated. Our shop is a community of creative people who are all trying to make people happy and help them to manifest solutions to their problems.

Pricing:

• Classes $10-$35 plus materials
• Finished Jewelry $8- $300
• Beading Parties $120 and up
• Repairs $5 and up
• Beads and Rocks $1 to $6000

Contact Info:

• Website: clevelandrocksandbeads.com
• Instagram: @clevelandrocksandbeads
• Facebook: @clevelandrocksandbeads