Designs To Support The Soul

Karen Bandy has a saying pinned to the wall of her art studio: “I use my resources to serve spirit. I create practical, beautiful structures that complement and serve the divine feminine on Earth.” With each piece of custom jewelry she designs, and with every empty canvas that she paints into meaning, Bandy fulfills her calling to generate pieces that evoke special beauty within each person.

In business for 29 years, and in Bend for just as long, Bandy is a fixture in the local community. About 10 years ago, the jewelry designer began painting animals and abstracts in acrylics, revealing her art through both precious gems and color pigments. Her pieces offer an outlet for personal expression by those who wear or hang them.

An Oregon-native, Bandy connects with nature. She sees the Central Oregon rivers and streams and green trees and blue sky, and translates that into her art.

“My inspiration is nature and history and beauty,” Bandy said. She feels nature in the smooth stones, history in the thousands of years needed to hewn the jewels, and beauty in the color, shape, and movement of the gems.

The tradition of jewelry has been a part of our lives for millenniums as a means for people to adorn themselves. Bandy’s striking and simple designs reflect some of her favorite time periods of historical jewelry, specifically the Italian Etruscan and Medieval eras.

“My work has evolved and I have changed and grown with styles, but I come back to my quality,” Bandy said. “There is a simpleness about my jewelry, but it is deceptively simple.”

The apparent simpleness arrives from the hours needed to mold strong lines, detailed designs, and seamless structure to showcase the stones. It is a concentration that Bandy unexpectedly began training for as a young girl.

Growing up in Portland, at the age of 12, Bandy began dipping used matchsticks into the soft wax of burning candles. After the wax built up at the edge of the stick, she would then sculpt the wax into little animals such as mice and pigs.

Through high school and college, Bandy elected to take art and jewelry classes. At the University of Oregon, she majored in art history and following graduation she taught junior high art for three years. As a result of an economic downturn, Bandy lost her job, but the unexpected blessing guided her down a path of creative design and business.

In a Portland jewelry store, Bandy was hired to design custom jewelry, construct pieces “on the bench,” assist customers and help with advertising. She then designed custom jewelry for a chain of three stores in Sacramento before she and her husband moved in Bend in 1987.

That same year, Bandy displayed a showcase of her jewelry in Frame Design & Sunbird Gallery and began building a customer base, including many who became lifelong clients. In 1988, she purchased a store on Minnesota Avenue. It would be the first of three shops that she would own over nearly three decades — all located on the same downtown Bend street.

In Bandy’s newest store, next to Thump Coffee, clients who have known her for many years wander in to catch up with the designer. Janet B, who has been a client of Bandy’s for almost 20 years, loves the pieces because they are all original.

“I feel special,” she said. “You don’t see what I wear on anyone else.”

In addition to the stones and settings available in Bandy’s store, customers also look upon abstract paintings of animals and impressions of nature with titles such as Obscurity, Going Places, Illusion, and Mindful. They elicit moods through color, shape, and texture that, combined with her jewelry, can move beyond dimension.

More than a decade ago, Bandy began hosting two-dimensional artists and painters during First Friday Art Walks. Featuring such artists inspired the jeweler to begin painting again, picking up the brush she had put down since college. She felt the immediacy and movement of the paint, and found herself creating abstract paintings of animals.

“With the animals you get a feeling of weariness or watchfulness or strength or power,” Bandy said. “With the jewelry I think the mood comes from the wearer’s reaction to the piece, and it can embolden people and become like an amulet for personal expression. I think that is my job — to bring out that personal expression.”

When Bandy designs a piece of custom jewelry, she first looks at the stone. It speaks to her. She carves out the setting in wax, which then goes to a goldsmith to be cast.

Bandy mostly works with faceted and cabochon stones, and always with happy gems that are high-quality, pure color, and bright. She designs the setting to create clean lines, a bold feeling, and an effortless support for the stone. Bandy purchases some tourmaline from Brazil, rubies from Burma, garnet and quartz from the United States, and sapphires from Madagascar and Sri Lanka.

Many customers work with Bandy on a custom level. Janice Druian, a Central Oregon landscape painter, approached Bandy to create a new setting for a jewel inherited from her mother. Throughout the process, the two women collaborated to create a piece that is both personally historic and contemporary.

“She has a tremendous amount of craftsmanship,” said Druian. “She has a great sense of design, and she also listens to the customer.”

Bandy — as a jeweler, artist, and longtime Bend business owner — plans to carry on designing precious frameworks that support personal expression. She sees the beauty in each stone, and brings forth the originality in each piece that is specific to each person.

“For the future,” said Bandy, “I will continue what I’m doing to make beautiful structures for beautiful people.”