Jen Ripley
Originally from San Diego, Jen currently lives in Oakland and works as a Speech-Language Pathologist with children with special needs. She discovered Blue Door Beads two years ago and made her first piece of jewelry that day! Ever since, she’s enjoyed creating unique necklaces and earrings. Her jewelry pieces are constructed of gemstones, glass, chain, and other materials. Her love for making jewelry is contagious, and she has inspired several friends to start making jewelry with her. She loves to see someone’s face light up when she gives them a piece of her handmade jewelry!
Necklace by Jen Ripley.
Necklace by Jen Ripley.
Charlene Wills
Charlene is an artist and graphic designer, who has lived in the Bay Area since the early 1980’s. Her work is deeply connected to nature and her experiences in nature, Renaissance paintings, and the Abstract Expressionists.
On the north wall of Blue Door Beads, Charlene has displayed her oil paintings and pastel drawings, which are her landscapes and abstract pieces. Most of the time, Charlene works from Polaroids or iPhone photos that are quickly snapped while she is out hiking. These inherently flawed photographs are evocative of her experience of that place and time. As Charlene explains, “What is overexposed, underexposed, unfocused becomes clear on paper or canvas.”
On the south wall are iPad drawings that are based on Charlene’s nature photography, and personal portraits of real and imagined people, output as giclées.
