Inspired by various forms of street style, Hip Hop and fashion trends, Kerri O’Connell, Founder and Head Designer of Good Wood NYC, prefers wood âNot Iceâ as the medium for creating urban themed wearable art embraced by many. Celebrities like Erykah Badu, Amber Rose, Nas, Justin Bieber and many others have been seen rocking Kerri’s creations.
I had the opportunity to chat with Kerri of Good Wood NYC as she took a break from the wood shop to talk about the growth of her business.
What is Good Wood... “We’re a company that makes custom wooden jewelry. We make necklaces, rings, pendants, earrings, coastersâ all made out of wood. We can pretty much make anything that you want.”
How did you get started… “I started Good Wood in 2007 carving wooden jewelry. It was mostly three and four-finger rings and stuff like that, and a lot of people started wearing them. I went to a lot of parties and events, giving a lot of stuff out to DJ’s and promotors, showing off what I was doing. I realized that the response I was getting from the pieces was tremendous, so I decided to start branding it.”
How do you make your pieces… “All the products are laser engraved. When I started carving them by hand, I realized there was no way I’d be able to mass produce it. So I looked into a few different options to efficiently mass produce the product. I looked into laser engravers, and they worked. We’re actually designing all the pieces. After the laser engraving, we hand sand, hand paint, and assemble all the products here in Brooklyn. So nothing gets done overseas; everything is done here domestically. Throughout time, I was able to build the company through getting more orders, getting more artists to hand paint the pieces, assemble them and design them using Illustrator and Photoshop.”
How did wood become the “IN” thing… “Good Wood is about the artwork and having a piece that means something to you as opposed to having a piece that’s showing how much money or status you have. I feel that it has the same affect on the person wearing it whether or not the piece was $60 or $6,000. I think it makes people feel really good about themselves and it’s something that they can be proud of. That’s the difference between Good Wood and platinum or gold jewelry. A lot of people would rather have something that gives them pleasure without having to spend a ridiculous amount of money. Also, as far as the artistic value, we’re doing the same thing that a jeweler does, but we’re doing it out of wood so the cost is a lot less, and you still get the same effect. Even more when you factor in custom color, hand painting, and different types of wood inlays that we use. It’s just another way to make jewelry.”
How did celebrities find the product… “It was about making custom pieces. I’ve always been into Hip Hop and I knew a lot of Hip Hop artists that I wanted to reach out to. I had a few people working with me that would also reach out to Hip Hop artists. It was just about making pieces that I thought they would wear or something that they would like. I didn’t know them personally, but I would look at their logo or something like that. I think that Good Wood speaks to the person wearing it so it’s hard to not wear something if it means something personal to you, or reflects who you are. So that was a strategy I used. After a few celebrities were seen wearing the pieces, more and more celebrities and professionals started requesting Good Wood.”
So what’s next… “We’re venturing into a few different products. We’re going to be doing glasses frames where you can put your own prescriptions in them. Over the next few months after we come out with them, you’ll be able to customize them yourself. You can have anything engraved on the sides, design a pattern yourself, or any concepts or ideas you have can go on the frames. We’re also going to be getting into housewares. We’ll be coming out with our own light switch plates completely made out of wood. We’re also doing coaster sets and a bunch of small household accessories that we’re in the process of developing right now.”
Read full story @ IndustryPlug
—— By: Industry Plug
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