From elegant simplicity to multi-layered elegance to gothic whimsy to just plain gothic, jeweler Barbara Klar has got it covered.
Her handmade original creations have been seen on TV shows (Friends), in movies (Wall Street) and worn by rock stars (David Bowie). Originally from Ohio, Klar came to NYC in 1979 and made herself at home here in her formative years until 2000. She’s just published her memoir, “You’re So Talented: Confessions of a Worker B,” about her journey.
“I wish I had a book like this to read on my way to New York,” she says. It’s a tale of artistic triumph and major letdowns, of learning life lessons that most people who have chosen a life in art have learned in one way or another.
“In New York City,” she notes, “you never knew what was going to happen.”
“When I moved from Cleveland,” she recalls, “ a whole culture was being created, and it was way beyond what I ever imagined.”
One of her friends was Cynthia Sley, who had joined her in the move from the Midwest. Sley, the lead singer of the legendary post-punk combo the Bush Tetras, was one of the first performers to wear Klar’s creations onstage.
“Starting back in 1980, the Bush Tetras wore Barb’s jewelry,” Sley recalls. “She used rubber, leather, feathers, and fur back then with metal. Pat Place and I both have worn her jewelry onstage throughout the decades. … She’s an excavator and an innovator, using ancient symbols and designs combined with modern concepts. That’s the one thing that’s remained constant. Her work has become more refined as she is able to use more gold and gems now because of her success.”
Klar recounts in her memoir the brief days of toiling in a workshop in the Diamond District, the failed interview at Cartier, the days shopping for inspiration at Canal Plastic, the constant efforts to promote her designs, and the horrifying experience of seeing her ideas stolen. She recounts the days (or rather, nights) of sleeping in the back of the store on East 7th Street, the wild parties, the characters that populated the neighborhood, the store in Soho, and the building that she bought in Williamsburg, her fight with cancer.
All along, she reveled in the act of creation that was at least partially inspired by being in the city, which she looks back on now from her upstate home with a mixture of nostalgia and relief.
“I really miss the energy, the vibrancy and the people watching,” she admits. “I love visiting the city, but I don’t miss the competition, the social requirements or the noise. I love Woodstock — I plan on staying here.”
“I spend a couple of days of the week in the studio”, she says. “The rest is spent on bookkeeping, marketing and promoting.”
She has one employee, a “self-taught, very talented” jeweler named Jessell Orion. “We pass some things back and forth,” Klar explains, “but all the difficult work is done by me. And all the commissions are done solely by me.”
Some of her most visible work is seen on rockers like Steve Jordan (Rolling Stones), Steven Tyler (Aerosmith), and, notably, David Bowie and Iman, who bought their wedding rings at her shop — unbeknownst to Klar.
“I used to stand in lines to give people a gift of my jewelry,” she tells us, handing her work to people like Tina Turner, but the Bowie sale happened without her knowledge. He and Iman stopped into the Soho store and bought their rings when she was out — and no one mentioned it to her. “Years later a client sent me a picture of David wearing the ring. I just said, ‘Oh my God!’”
The celebrity connections are not always rewarding though, as evidenced by the time when Mickey Rourke allegedly stole a bunch of her rings from a photo shoot.
Klar found the experience of writing the book to be purposeful: “Most people who know me are just unaware of what happened to me. It was painful to re-experience some things, and there were things that were left out. My job is not to shame anyone — I’m not out there to get even. My job is to inspire. I wrote about the things that changed my perspective. I felt liberated after I wrote it.”
Nowadays, Klar considers herself “semi-retired,” cutting back on the number of shows that she does but has no plans to stop.
“I’m never not thinking about jewelry,” she confesses. “The joy and the creativity is there. I just want to live my truth and my art, as a kind of a light in the darkness. … I never thought that I would last this long. It’s amazing that I’m still alive.”
Barbara Klar will hold her annual show at the Chelsea Hotel on Friday evening, Dec. 6, and Saturday afternoon, Dec. 7. Details can be found at barbaraklar.com/pages/upcoming-shows, and you can follow her on Instagram at @barbaraklar.
Her book is available directly from her website, barbaraklar.com, and on Amazon.
