Prescott, AZ August 31, 2007 Today, Halstead Bead, Inc. announced
the winner of its second annual national business grant competition
for bridge jewelry designers: Belle Brooke Designs of Los Angeles,
CA.
Belle Brooke Barer, principal designer and visionary of the company,
will receive $6,000 in cash and merchandise as part of the grant
prize package. She intends to use these funds to invest in a fashion
marketing campaign including both print and web materials. “I think
that is going to be a big help for me in taking the next step and
really expanding my business,” said an exuberant Barer. Her work is
already sold in stores around the country as well as through several
online retailers.
Barer creates jewelry that is inspired by the natural symmetry
inherent in the organic world. The style is an artistic rendering of
the concept of cells and their multitudinous manifestations. Her
work is unmistakably original and features circular patterns
compressed within shaped frames and offset by natural You
can see her current Metropolis and Night Sky collections at
www.bellebrooke.net.
Barer began making jewelry as a teenager in her hometown of Houston,
TX. Her passion for jewelry as an art form continued to grow over
the years alongside her other creative endeavors such as photography
and studio art. She moved to California for her advanced education
and honed her talents at Pitzer College in Claremont, The Crucible
in Berkeley and the Revere Academy of Jewelry Arts in San Francisco.
Eventually, she landed her first industry job as a bench jeweler for
Studio 311 in Petaluma. After studying many techniques, Barer began
to develop her own unique style and decided to launch her signature
line and business in 2005. Belle Brooke Designs was born and has
been steadily growing from its Los Angeles home base ever since.
“Belle Brooke stood out in an extremely competitive field of
applicants this year. Anyone can see the design talent she possesses
when you look at her line. However, the judging committee also got
to see a thorough business plan that revealed her solid strategic
and analytical skills,” said Hilary Halstead Scott, Marketing
Director at Halstead Bead, Inc. “This is clearly a young woman with
a very bright future in the industry and we are proud to offer her
this award.”
Halstead Bead offers the grant each year as an award to a bridge
jewelry designer who launched their business within the last three
years. The prize differs from most competitions in the trade because
judging is equally based on both jewelry design acumen and the
artists’ business skills. Applicants are required to respond to
several specific questions and submit a business plan along with
their design portfolio. Candidates from all over the United States
vied for the grant and represented the full breadth of products and
marketing approaches in the marketplace. The Halstead Bead Business
Grant for Bridge Jewelry is an annual competition that draws
designers from across the nation. Details on the award and all of
this year’s top 10 finalists can be found at
www.halsteadbead.com/grant. The deadline for next year’s competition
will be in June 2008. Updated application materials will be
available online this fall. Last year’s winner was Ananda Khalsa
Jewelry of Providence, RI.
Halstead Bead, Inc. is one of North America’s leading jewelry supply
importers and distributors. The firm was established in 1973 and now
supplies thousands of component resellers and jewelry designers
around the globe. Halstead Bead, Inc. is wholesale only and sells
beads and findings for the bridge jewelry segment in sterling
silver, gold-filled, copper, pearl, shell, glass and
crystal. The firm also distributes branded component lines such as
Swarovski and Beadalon.
Contacts:
Belle Brooke Barer
Belle Brooke Designs
www.bellebrooke.net