Story & Lesson Highlights with Jennifer Daggs of New Cumberland, PA

Jennifer Daggs shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.

Good morning Jennifer, we’re so happy to have you here with us and we’d love to explore your story and how you think about life and legacy and so much more. So let’s start with a question we often ask: What are you being called to do now, that you may have been afraid of before?
I believe I have finally found balance in my life. For years I have struggled with making time for my art while still working a full time job. I would never have the energy in the evenings to work in my studio and by the weekend all I wanted to do was rest. I often thought about working full time as an artist but I just couldn’t figure out a way to make enough money to pay the bills and feel comfortable financially.

Now I work for a school, where I have my summers off! I can spend days in a row working in my studio getting deep into my pieces and the joy of it without feeling the pressure to produce for my next show. Additionally my job energizes me and leaves me with creative energy at the end of the week that gets me in the studio on the weekends. I teach art one day a week and work in the office the rest of the week. I’m exercising both sides of my brain at this job and I love it. To make things even more balanced I get to go on trips with the kids that take me to new places where I often find inspiration. So my job actually feeds my creativity rather than deplete it.

For years I thought I needed to find a way to be a full time artist but now that I have balance in my everyday I feel called to work and be an artist. It doesn’t lessen who I am as an artist or the value of the work I do. As a result I am more comfortable now with my work life balance.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Jennifer Daggs, most people call me Jen, please don’t call me Jenny -I’m not a Jenny. My studio name is Kerensamere Studios. Kerensamere means love and peace by the water in Cornish. It was the name of the house I grew up in near the Chesapeake Bay. I spent a lot of my childhood outside and I believe that inspired my love of nature.

I’ve been working in stained glass for over 25 years. The first 20 or so years I made mostly stained glass jewelry. In the last few years I have switched to small panels with raised or dimensional designs.

The work I have been producing lately has been focused on flowers and nature. I decided to work on small panels that are 3 1/2” x 12” I like the challenge of working in that space while allowing my work to break the frame to add interest and movement. The size is also easy for people to find homes for my work, they can easily see it in their own space.

I love going to gardens and plant centers for inspiration. But I also find inspiration on hikes in the woods, native wild flowers are just as beautiful as anything you might find in a formal garden.

When someone picks up one of my pieces and tells me how they are connected to a certain flower or plant I love seeing the look on their face when they realize they can take it home and it won’t fade or wilt, they will have it for years to come. This brings me joy and satisfaction.

I love pushing the envelope of what people think stained glass is. Making it dimensional makes my work stand out and makes it interesting. It’s not as much about how the light will shine through it, because I often use layers of glass and my background pieces are often opaque. This makes my work fitting to hang on a wall instead of being limited to a window.

I enjoy the process of creating and solving the puzzle of how to represent the plants in a way that people will recognize that still works in glass. When things start going well I’m known to start giggling at my workbench. At the same time I love watching people’s faces when they see my work and fall in love with a particular piece. It brings me satisfaction to wrap it up and send it home with them.

Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. What part of you has served its purpose and must now be released?
I think the jeweler in me is done. I made stained glass jewelry for almost 20 years I used to love the instant gratification of making jewelry but now I enjoy projects that I can sink my teeth into, ones with puzzles to solve. At some point making jewelry became a drag or a burden. I still enjoyed working with glass and making unexpected things with it, just not jewelry.

For a year or two I tried doing both jewelry and my mini panels, even sold them both side by side in my booth at shows. This year I decided to make the break. I completely redesigned my display and focused only on my mini panels. I think the switch has been successful. I feel more creatively fulfilled and I don’t miss making the jewelry. I still get to play with the colors and textures of the glass.

Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
I took some time off from my studio when my daughter was in middle school. She encountered some debilitating heath issues and I had to turn all of my energy to her. We almost lost her two times in the matter of a few months. It scared the hell out of my husband and I. There was no energy to be creative, I stopped doing shows, stopped making art and dust gathered in my studio. When I was in the thick of it I thought that was it, I was done being an artist. The grief in our house was palpable, no creativity could happen.

Thankfully she rallied and our family pulled ourselves together and we fought for her and found answers for her. A year or so later I started playing in the studio again. The jewelry work stopped making me happy so I started working on small panels and sun catchers. I eventually found my way to my mini panels and I have reinvented myself as an artist.

So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. What would your closest friends say really matters to you?
I think they would say that honesty matters most to me. Being our true honest selves. Not pretending to be someone or something that we are not. I keep it real. What you see is what you get when it comes to me. I don’t like to lie, I try not to exaggerate. My favorite quote is from Shakespeare, “To thine own self be true” I like to live my life that way.

Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. Are you doing what you were born to do—or what you were told to do?
I have always been creative even as a child. In the third grade I made dolls out of nylon stockings and sold them. In college I learned how to marble textiles and sold them out of my dorm room to pay for textbooks. I also like to joke that my dad brainwashed me to be an entrepreneur. I think I’ve found a way to do both.

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Jennifer Daggs

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