We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Karen Christians. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Karen below.

Hi Karen, thanks for joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

It started with a fire. In 1989 while attending a Halloween party, a drunk partier decided to flick a Bic lighter and set my costume on fire. I landed in the hospital for a month with 30% 3rd-degree burns and skin grafts. Six months later, I took my first jewelry class at adult ed and was horrified to learn that I needed to torch to solder to join my first project, a band ring. With the help from my teacher, I watched in utter fascination that little slipstream of solder flowing across my silver band ring—that moment marked the first significant transformation of my life. After two years of Adult Ed and creating my studio to make jewelry, I was accepted at 40 yrs old at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and graduated with honors in 1997. This marked the first major transition in my life. In 2006, I attended my first of 10 years at Burning Man, surrounded by fire. This marked the second transition of my life. And yeah, watching my first Man Burn was rather tricky.

Passion fuels risk.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

After graduating in Metals from Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 1997, I pondered my next move. Jewelry production and pursuing the art craft market did not interest me. At Mass Art, I discovered I had a knack for teaching. After graduation, a position opened at an Adult Education center in Cambridge, MA, where I got my start. The studio needed a makeover with additional equipment and hand tools. I convinced the administration to invest in creating a well-rounded jewelry teaching space and curriculum and adding the Studio Saturday program, where one could catch up on a demo, hang with other students, and collaborate on designs. There was no afternoon jewelry class, and this was added to the existing evening schedule. Another “What If “came to me with the idea of a collaborative community studio combined with a teaching studio.

During a trip to California on an airplane, I sketched out the layout of a building with these two components. A woman in my class asked me what I wanted to do with my life. I brought out my “napkin sketch” and described to her my ideas for a different kind of jewelry school. She nodded and, on the spot, reached into her purse and wrote me a check for $10,000, and told me to follow my bliss. Metalwerx was born in 1998 and is now a non-profit jewelry school in its 25th year. The risk came in year five when the school took off, and my husband and I took out a second mortgage on our house and created a world-class school with the best teaching experience available.

The Metalwerx Template, as I called it, was simple. My job as Director was to find rock-star teachers, pay them well and take care of their housing, shipping, and transportation. Metalwerx, besides teaching, provided an area for ten private studio mates who formed a community of fabrication excellence. These “Metalwerx Ambassadors” were the teaching assistants who supported teachers in an unfamiliar studio by locating tools like scrub nurses. They also could help a student with a particular task, so the instructor was uninterrupted in their flow. Teachers had one job – teaching and caring for the students. My job as the Director was to take care of the teachers. I was able to shift the paradigm for how all teachers were paid across every jewelry school in the US.

Although I am no longer associated with Metalwerx, that spark of risk has led me to two books, “Making the Most of Your Flex Shaft (an instructional book that is a primer for the flex shaft and its accessories) and “The Jewelry of Burning Man” (a 25-year look at the enduring Burning Man’s Ten Principles – Gifting), teaching jewelry during the winter in Thailand, three jewelry teaching shops in maker spaces, and creating the first-ever lab-grown diamond from a collaboration with Burning Man and Sotheby’s in New York. Pepetools Inc. took on my idea of an excellent titanium soldering pick and has manufactured thousands. Risk is about trusting your gut. Risk is contemplation by turning an idea over and over. It is also about researching the market and identifying your audience and demographic. The success of Metalwerx was targeting women 50 and older. My soldering pick was developed with specific features that engendered jewelry soldering with confidence. My focus is bench jewelry, resurrecting designs that are no longer carried, and new ideas to make the task easier.

Risk is knowing yourself and trusting your ideas. Some ideas have failed spectacularly. Learning from those mistakes is what fuels my passion.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Artists explore and manifest. Let’s look at real estate. Every hip and trendy area in cities often began as derelict buildings and unsavory parts of town. SoHo, or South of Houston in New York City, had empty buildings and warehouses that were cheap to occupy. Artists moved in, lured by affordable rent and massive spaces, and dug in with their creative ecosystem. Galleries were next in the renovation, moving into street spaces, restaurants, and cafes. A somewhat dangerous part of town became attractive to a rebellious and hip audience. These explorers created the model of significant building renovations with retail on the first floor and loft space above. It was the perfect synergy for the explosion of fantastic art in any major city worldwide. But as it became cool, rents were raised, and high-end trendy ones replaced the smaller restaurants and cafes. Big box stores replaced spacious art galleries. The lofts became trendy with the attraction of natural light and high ceilings remodeled with fancy kitchen appliances and Italian marble bathrooms; the artists who created the ecosystem were driven out. Chelsea was the next area, then the Meat Market, and eventually, they were priced out of the market. Now artists are looking for new cheap space, and we have DUMBO in Brooklyn and Williamsburg.

In Boston, two suburbs, Somerville and Allston, were the student ghettos for our many college students. They were gritty and dangerous, and housing was super cheap. Its proximity to Boston and public transportation made it perfect for musicians, sculptors, 2d and 3D artists. No longer. It is now the hip and trendy neighborhood where real estate climbed 300%. Since 2016, my studio has been located in a textile mill building called Western Avenue Studios, the largest in New England in Lowell, MA, about 25 miles from Boston. As the industrial revolution and textile mills sprouted in the hundreds, it became the new SoHo of Greater Boston. Artists are driven out of Somerville, and Allston is now coming to Lowell and renovating huge spaces. Do you see a pattern here?

How can artists be supported? Everyone wins if we are recognized for improving the community with subsidized rents and allowing creatives to be creative and thrive. Real estate developers kill the creative passion for making a buck. How do we move forward and work with developers in balancing their needs with ours? What steps can we take to progress to a win-to-win scenario?

Western Avenue Studios was purchased by the Arts and Business Council in Boston. They aim to buy and invest in cooperative art buildings, stabilize rent, deterring developers who wish to “condoize” everything. Lowell is the second-largest Cambodian population in the country. We thrive in their diversity of food, culture, and art. Western Avenue Studios holds Open Studios on the first Saturday of every month. We invite the public to see what we do. There is a template here for the future of the creative economy.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Steve Jobs said it best, “Think Differently. We are here to put a dent in the universe. Otherwise, why are we here?” I have the luxury to make, write, teach, and travel. I get to work on the most original ideas sparked by incredibly cool people. I revel in having students fabricate a simple band ring and walk out the door showing their friends. When I graduated from art school, I said, “I didn’t leave Mass Art a better artist; I left learning to ask better questions.” The best aspect of being an artist is that no idea is too ludicrous or crazy. I get to ask “What If” and then create the idea. What I have learned is that I am a visionary and entrepreneur. I conceive of an idea with pictures way down the road and then the people interacting. Then it is only backing up from that view to begin. I feel both blessed and lucky and have my studio with affordable rent because their mission is to protect us, and by doing so, as a community, we put a massive dent in the universe and continue to do so every day.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.karenchristians.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/karenachristians/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karen.christians.1
• Youtube: @karenchristians1191

Image Credits
All photos by Karen Christians.