Joy in jewelry, less in law

Andrea Garr has the luxury of being able to walk along the street and recognize her artwork dangling gracefully around the neck of a passerby.

Garr specializes in hand-crocheted jewelry, a genre that dates to the Victorian Era and is, she says, "a traditional art that is lost, but not dead."

A self-described "recovering lawyer," Garr left the law business about five years ago to pursue her own enterprise, A. Garr Creation, and she hasn't looked back.

"I like to think that before, I was in the unhappy business," Garr says, "but now I'm in the happy business."

Garr has been making her jewelry, which she describes as having "traditional technique with contemporary style," for 10 years. Her materials include glass, pearls, crystal, sterling silver, gold, and various semiprecious stones. The multitude of colors featured throughout some of Garr's bracelets and necklaces often flow in elegant patterns, while some pieces are woven in a single color with traces of others interspersed.

In a community where most artists hang their work on a wall, Garr hangs hers on clients; she wouldn't have it any other way.

"I love seeing people wearing my stuff," she says. "Each piece I make is like a little piece of creativity."

Even though her trade is different from that of others in the SoWa Artists Guild, Garr says, she still fits right in.

"We all do different things, but we're still a part of this community," she says. "It's a great mix of people."

Artist Andrea Garr says she loves to see pieces of her hand-crocheted jewelry being worn by passersby.

Source: boston