Making Art & Making a Living
By Laurie Atwater | It’s a bright day at the Lexington Farmer’s Market. I’ve just come off the highway—five hours from northern Maine to Lexington and I remember that I want to make a stop at the Farmer’s market to see Nina Brandin’s jewelry. I know that she is there because supportive mom, Kerry Brandin has sent an email letting friends know. Love that!
The Lexington Farmer’s Market features an eclectic mix of food artisans, farmers and craftspeople. Nina’s corner is populated with fellow craftspeople hoping to catch the eye of a buyer or two. As I make my way over, I am reminded of how tough it can be tough to make a living as an artist or artisan, but that it’s possible, too if you have talent, the right temperament, resilience and a capacity for risk-taking—not to mention luck, perseverance and a couple of supportive parents!
Hearing Nina’s story, it is clear that her parents, Kerry and Jan Brandin had a lot to do with her success. From an early age, Kerry took Nina with her to craft shows around the area exposing her to the beauty of handcrafted work and the dazzle of pretty beads and shiny metals! “At bead shows she would appease me by saying, ‘if you’re really good, I’ll buy you a couple of beads,’” Nina recalls. “All day I’d be planning which beads I wanted!”
When Nina was in middle school her mom signed her up for a silversmithing class at Minuteman Tech. “It was an after school program and we made a knot ring,” she recalls. After that there were classes at the Munroe School for the Arts and the Lexington Arts and Crafts Society where she studied with award-winning jewelry designer and metalsmith Munya Upin.
“From a very early age Nina was just good at working with her hands,” her mother Kerry says. She even loved woodworking!” Indeed, Nina remembers “Wood with Mr. Wood” at Clarke Middle School!
Her other great love is music. “I started playing bass [upright bass] in fourth grade through the Lexington Public Schools,” Nina says. Nina took private lessons, but the experiences that really nurtured her love of music came from playing at Lexington High School with Jeff Leonard. “I was a busy kid at Lexington High School,” she recalls with laughter. “I played in all of the groups—jazz combo, orchestra, honors orchestra—I even played in the pit orchestra for the plays and a couple of times I did pep band for football games!” Nina remembers going to Europe with the jazz ensemble, performing at the Berkeley School of Music and competing in the Winton Marsalis/Duke Ellington competition at Lincoln Center! She has a vivid recollection of a workshop at LHS with bass virtuoso Christian McBride and Joshua Redman. “The training I got in Lexington has really given me the opportunity to teach and give back,” Nina says, “because the education was so great.”
Nina, who now lives in Boulder, Colorado, performs with the Broomfield Symphony in her free time. She is section-leader on acoustic bass and is serving a third season on their Board. She also takes every opportunity to play jazz and big band music.
Another love of hers with a Lexington connection is her passion for photography. According to Nina, she is very seldom without a camera. “I loved photography with Mr. Z [Jack Zichitella] she says, “I love taking pictures and I learned how to do it with him! I learned about composition and spatial awareness going from 3-D to 2-D—and about angles and light. It sort of shaped my sense of jewelry design in a way,” she reflects.
What taught her the nuts and bolts jewelry making was her time at the North Bennett Street School (NBSS) in the North End. After a couple of years in mechanical engineering at UMass Amherst, Nina decided that it wasn’t for her. She took some time off to reflect, went to Maine for a season to teach snowboarding (a skill she acquired through the Nashoba Valley after school program at LHS) and was ready to come back to Boston when her mom directed her to the program at NBSS. It was instantly attractive to Nina. “It’s a fifteen month bench jewelry program,” she explains. “Every day you are working hands-on and solving problems. Mistakes are not allowed—you fix your mistakes along the way,” she laughs. The strength of the program is that it gave her technical mastery first and foremost. Mom Kerry Brandin saw it as the perfect program for her daughter. The curriculum combined Nina’s mechanical ability with her aesthetic side and allowed
her to be hands-on. “Most jewelry designers come from an art school background,” Kerry says. “They have to learn the technical skills later. Nina has the skills to make anything she designs.” Her mastery has allowed her to be a virtuoso jewelry designer making everything by hand. “I make my own clasps and some of my own chains and ear wires,” she says. “Everything is made by hand—I’m not casting or reproducing anything. Each piece is an original—made from scratch,” Nina says.
Recently Nina has designed a unique safety clasp that she makes from scratch. “It’s basically a hook,” she says, “but then I make a ball that’s flattened on the end so the hook has to fit exactly into the slot and it can’t just jiggle out.” It’s a great marriage of her mechanical engineering skills and her artistry! “I just have a knack for making things fit together,” she laughs.
Speaking of marriage and fit, Nina loves to make custom engagement rings. “I’ll sit down with a customer and hear their story—how they met, where they’re from, what they love to do together and what they are looking for in a piece of jewelry,” she says. “Then I find a way to relate their story subtly to the custom piece that I build.”
Recently she has been creating “stackers,” rings that can be combined in many different ways to tell a unique story. The stackers are popular she says because they aren’t as expensive and you can collect them over time. “People just love the rings.”
Struggling artists, take heart! Making art and making a living are often incompatible, but Nina has found a way to make it work. She sells direct through her website (www.ninasjewelry.com) and at craft fairs and art shows. “I sell direct because it’s less expensive for the customer than selling through a gallery.” Her customers love her pieces because they are American made and they are finely made.Back at the Lexington Farmer’s Market Nina sells a beautiful band in oxidized silver to Valerie Richkin of Lexington who was looking for a unique gift for her husband. If you have missed Nina at the Farmer’s Market, you can check her out online or next month at the 300th celebration.
Although she loves her life in Boulder for its slower pace, great weather and snowboarding, she never forgets Lexington and appreciates the incredible start that she got here. “It’s pretty amazing the opportunities and experiences I had in Lexington,” she says. “I was crazy-lucky!”