Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Karen Christians. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Karen, so excited to talk about all sorts of important topics with you today. The first one we want to jump into is about being the only one in the room – for some that’s being the only person of color or the only non-native English speaker or the only non-MBA, etc Can you talk to us about how you have managed to be successful even when you were the only one in the room that looked like you?
As Frank Sinatra sang, “I did it my way.” While this method had its ups and downs, in the end (I’m now 70), I just trusted my gut if I had a good idea. Some call me a visionary. I spent my 20s enrolling in several colleges and dropping out, searching for the “thing” I could connect with. The fact I was in Silicon Valley in the early 80s was not lost on me. At the same time, my computer programmer husband took me to various computer gatherings for graphics and certain computer language groups, which was all over my head. One thing stuck, tho, as it was not the subjects that caught my interest but the people. Silicon Valley was a hotbed of entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Mark Lassiter from Pixar. I attended talks at various computer groups, reveling in their passion and commitment to their chosen fields. As Silicon Valley was small in those days, they frequently had lunch in a particular restaurant in Palo Alto where I would dine. To hear these guys talk was my exposure to those who were the only ones in the room, and that stuck like glue.
At 70, I look back to the outrageous projects I did and one I’m still working on. My journey strangely began at a Halloween party 1989 in Cambridge, MA. A drunk partygoer flicked a Bic Lighter and set my costume on fire. I ended up in the hospital with 30% 3rd-degree burns and spent a month recovering from skin grafts on my calves and buttocks. I was working at Harvard University, running a biology lab. It was a difficult time as I began my journey of healing. Three months after the fire, I needed something to do. I enrolled in a jewelry class at a local adult ed night program. I always loved jewelry, the art, the stones, and the little mechanical clicks of mechanisms. When it came time to solder a silver ring, this required a torch, and the fire that had plagued my way forward with PTSD, I was terrified. My teacher was gentle and understanding and walked me through the soldering process. I knew I was hooked once I saw the little slipstream of solder swimming its way onto the seams and hold.
From that class, I took more classes for two years. I applied as a nontraditional student in the metals department at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and was accepted. I left in 1997 with a BFA and High Honors. I was 43 when I graduated. During my college days, I found myself helping my classmates. I had a knack for explaining jewelry techniques. After I graduated, I found a job at the same adult ed where I began and became their jewelry teacher for 2 1/2 years. It was full circle. Through my teaching, I developed a class that is still there today called “Studio Saturdays.” This was a time for students who missed a class because of travel or to work during the day on their class projects. This class fostered a relaxed group of students where we all became a community. A field trip to artist studios, including a jewelry studio, inspired me, and I devised a unique idea. What if… (my clarion call) I could create a community school for jewelry where artists worked, and the best in the business would teach? I spoke to business professionals, SCORE advisors, and a bank. I became the only one in the room. I had no real business experience and needed a business plan, but I knew this idea was solid. My husband and I took a second mortgage on our house, and he supported me.
I developed a business template for Metalwerx, which was adopted throughout the metals teaching industry and changed the paradigm for paying teachers. Even though Metalwerx became a nonprofit, its business structure was based on a profit model. Pay your teachers a good salary, only hire the best in their field, and pay for their housing, shipping, and travel. The most challenging part of teaching in a new environment is locating teaching tools and understanding the layout. Because Metalwerx fostered a private studio community of eight artists, those members became the Teaching Assistant ambassadors. My teachers only had one job, and that was to teach. I had one job: ensuring they had everything they needed to teach their best. Students were essential but not the priority. When teachers taught at other schools, they expected the same treatment. Everyone prospered.
In 2006, I was taken to Burning Man with a theme camp, Oasis 47. For the first time, I stood in a room with 50,000 people at BRC (Black Rock Citizens) of my kind. They were quirky, brilliant, creative, and nurturing. I was told to bring something to share or gift to Burning Man. As a metalsmith, I made and cast 150 theme-related pendants embellished with resin inlay, similar to cloisonne. I taught hundreds of people in our tent for the next ten years. An interesting exchange occurred between a “Burner” who found one of our pendants in the charred rubble the previous year and our camp. His story became a “meaningful gift.” That story became the impetus for a book, “The Jewelry of Burning Man,” which I self-published based on a collection of fabulous jewelry from the event. In 2021, there was an auction at Sotheby’s with Burning Man. Some of the offerings were a collection of “Playa Jewelry.” I proposed making a red lab-grown diamond in an 18K setting from the carbon and ash from a temple burn. Was it an economic success? No, but I made the only one, and it was cool.
Nowadays, I teach workshops, fabricate private commissions, and travel during the winter to Chiang Mai, Thailand. It is beautiful there. I have a jewelry studio and study traditional Thai Chasing and Repousse techniques. I post photos through FB. It started with many trips back and forth with a few weeks stay here and there. I decided to enter the room of one and arranged a three-month stay: the idea was for me to trust Fall and hope that Thailand would catch me. It did. Now, I bring a group of women each year for them to wander the back streets on their own with confidence that nobody will hurt them.
Somebody asked me, “Do I feel successful”? Yes. What is my measurement? By being that person in the room who stands alone, I answer to nobody but myself. In all my endeavors, I ask myself, will this be an epic success or epic failure? I’ve certainly had my failures, but I’ve learned more about myself each time. My husband and I are comfortable, have savings, and every day, we enjoy each other’s company. We’ve been married for 45 years. That is my success story. To share my life with a nerdy programmer who bakes on his days off. He stands alone, and so do I, but the most important thing is that we stand together.
What have I learned the most? I need to trust my gut, not worry about falling down a cliff, pursue every crazy idea passionately, and learn from every experience.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
My brand is less about what I make and more about the approach to achieving. I make an Ergonomic jewelry soldering tool, and am pursuing jewelry bench furniture and modifications. I write books. One is a small jewelry HOW TO book on a jewelry tool called the Flex Shaft. I attend Burning Man, which prompted a book called “Jewelry of Burning Man. That prompted a three-book series, of which I am working on the second, “Jewelry of Star Trek.” The third is “Jewelry of Service and Secret Societies.”
My brand is about communication, a website that is useful and has good information. I enjoy what I do. My brand is teaching and starting things. It’s about trusting your gut with a go-to attitude.
The most challenging part of my brand, at age 70, is the tech. I am about substance, not glitz. It is about being a female my age who finds pursuing crazy ideas worthwhile. How do you brand that? I’m still determining. I will continue to pursue art, photography, and jewelry making and stay curious…every day.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
This is a relevant question right now. Staying true to yourself is essential. In the developing age of AI, going down the dark route and having AI be the driver is dangerous. Its writing is seductive, but developing prose and your writing style is better.
Noble service for others is essential in shaping your personality and your spirit. Learn to be present and still. Learn to listen. Fill a room with smarter people than you.
In making a cool thing, these three things will make your idea successful.
1) Demographic. Find one and stick to it. Mine is women 55 and older. I built a school and a following for older women.
2) Create something or a tool that has a feature. Mine was a titanium soldering pick that is light, dextrous, and easy to use. Or a jewelry tool book and a book about jewelry at Burning Man.
3) Develop a tool or service that reduces anxiety. Look at a GPS. No matter how lost you become, a GPS will usually bring you to your destination.
Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
Tech is undoubtedly my biggest challenge when I see video clips pinpointing direct media if I do this or pay for that. I don’t know what questions to ask.
When I began my business, there was no social media, search engines, and barely a computer. To be in business is to understand business. I must rely on bookkeepers, a CPA, metal volatility, shipping products, attending metals conferences, and most of all, a barrage of people who want my time because they saw something interesting on my LinkedIn profile. My goal is to be a better teacher and to make my art. I aim to have a literary agent for Star Trek to read my book treatment. My goal is to build helpful jewelry bench furniture for maximum organization. I aim to build the first “Bum Gun,” a bathroom addon to clean oneself using the toilet prevalent in Asia and save one trillion rolls of toilet paper from sewage treatment centers and septic tanks.
My biggest enemy is time. I hear friends who spend up to 2 hours daily marketing on social media. That’s 10 hours I could write or answer this interview, LOL.
Contact Info:
- Website: karenchristians.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karen.christians.1
- Other: See the previous question on my biggest challenge.
Image Credits
Cover Photo for Jewelry of Burning Man, George Post
