From FSU Art BA ’15 Victoria Hunnewell: I am blessed to have the opportunity to be interning for Lisa Phipps, the owner/ artist of Chic Verte, a Tallahassee area jewelry designer. The jewelry that Chic Verte produces is made from items in nature, some examples would be pecan earrings, antler bracelets, or an oyster necklace to name a few. It is important to Chic Verte to use what nature discards, for example the antlers used in the jewelry making process are shed not harvested.
My internship has been a wonderful experience thus far. I began with spending a few weeks learning the ins and outs of this working studio. I am lucky to have the option to work both at Chic Verte Studio as well as working from my home studio as well. I have assembled jewelry, dyed suede, and spent time helping the company reorganize the studio space to combine what were a showroom and a separate work-space. My duties are constantly changing, and I love this aspect of being a professional artist. My latest task assigned, is to make molds of extremely delicate, super tiny, sea urchins. This has proven to be quite the challenge; it required a great deal of research, contacting fellow artists, and several failures, however, challenges only make success that much sweeter. (I would explain more but it is top secret)
I am considered a ‘non-traditional’ student, as I am older and have a family to care for, which makes my goals a bit different than the traditional student. I have been in the workforce for many years. Therefore, my goals for this internship have more to do with re-gearing and learning how to motivate myself as opposed to having a supervisor directly giving tasks to be accomplished. I have learned so much by simply observing Lisa in her daily routine of coming to the studio and her continuous innovative ideas. Basically I am learning what it takes to successfully run my own professional studio once I graduate.
I am looking forward to the seeing what the remainder of the internship will entail. Every day is a new adventure, making beautiful artistic jewelry. I thank Lisa for the experience thus far and look forward to a future business relationship with Chic Verte as I embark on opening my own studio. I hope to not only sell my work, but have some workshops as well.