Onetribe’s “Crystal Castle” Displays

Interview by Marina Pecorino

For the second year in a row, Jared Karnes of Onetribe took home the Creative Innovator Award. Last year it was the multidimensional “Topo” ear weight design. This year, the prize-winning pieces were the “Crystal Castle” displays. I, once again, had the honor of interviewing Jared about running a production queue based business in the piercing industry, and expanding horizons into working with a broader range of materials.

Marina Pecorino: In last year’s interview, you explained the metamorphosis your business made from having numerous employees across several continents, to a small, homebased, personal endeavor. Usually you hear of business models moving in the opposite direction. Can you tell us more about your vision for the future of Onetribe?

Jared Karnes: It’s been a wild ride. It’s easy to find a roadmap for growth, and I became accustomed to thinking about my business as something that  should  continuously  grow.  It was much more challenging to take a step back and decide to be dramatically smaller. Going forward, I’m very interested in play, agility, and unpredictability. I want to spend more time making because I love to do it and not because of a production queue. My sketchbooks need liberation! I will never stop making body jewelry, but I am less interested in being perceived as just a body jewelry company. I have been making a serious effort to explore new forms and use materials in new ways. Ceramic has been an exciting diversion and something I intend to spend a lot more time doing.

MP: I’ve been watching the development of the Crystal Castle displays on social media, and it has been fascinating. Can you explain the development process?

JK: I have always had a fascination with crystalline shapes. The unique facets of quartz crystals and the stacking of perfect pyrite cubes captivate me, but I found myself wondering what these shapes would look like in beautiful colors and textures. I wanted to see these shapes in coral, periwinkle, or sparkly matte black.

There’s been an explosion of body jewelry display options, and I have loved many of the unique shapes from display specific companies, but the use of wood does not inspire me. I thought ceramic would be a great challenge, and it can fit well with a high-end aesthetic for displaying precious metals and stones. Also, a bunch of my friends are making outrageously good ends and hinged rings, and I thought it would be rad to give that work a stage.

I started working with clay in January as a way to let my  hands and mind wander with a forgiving material and meditative process. After hand-making solid prototypes of crystal forms, I realized they were far too heavy to have around glass display cases. I decided to learn slip casting, which uses plaster molds and liquid clay “slip” to cast thin walled hollow objects. After teaching myself mold making and slip casting, I was able to finalize a process and select (or in some cases custom grind) quartz crystals in suitable shapes for single Cryst displays. The larger Crystal Castles are then hand built by modifying and attaching single cast crystals into a more massive structure which I fire as one piece.

MP: Has the result diverged from your original vision at all? What joys and challenges did you face along the way?

JK: They have manifested true to my original intent primarily because I used the crystals as a tool to learn ceramic processes. Early on in the project, I created a specific goal for the product that would require me to learn specific methods in order. It was a challenge to develop a product and processes in a new medium in a little over 90 days, but I enjoyed going for it. Watching something that was soft clay and gloppy liquid glaze transform into stone coated in a layer of glass is mind-boggling.

One of the hardest problems to solve was how to handle the bottoms of both the single Cryst and the Castles. I made several two and three-piece plaster molds that cast pieces with a solid base and a hole in the center. These were faster to cast and clean up, but the molds are more time consuming and fragile. This option also created more waste while building the Castles, limited my access to the interior for installing hardware, and prevented me from being able to adjust the angle of view. I went back to one piece open molds for most shapes and created a “pool” mold for casting a bottom onto each piece. With this additional step of adding the bottom last, I can trim the walls of a display and reduce the height or allow it to lean back for a better viewing angle in different kinds of display cases.

MP: How have you felt about working with these new mediums? What similarities and differences have you discovered that you didn’t expect?

JK: Clay is AMAZING. I never worked it in high school or art school, but it has long been an interest. I recently dug up some notes from a meeting with my employees in 2008; we were discussing options for ceramic in our industry. I started carving and polishing fired porcelain like a stone around 2012, but did not touch soft clay until this year. The profound differences in process and feel changed how I think about materials. Stone carving is both literally and figuratively abrasive. The hands take a lot of abuse, and the process is very loud. Clay is soft and nearly silent. It yields to the touch in a wet state, it maintains a memory of each contact with tool or hand, and it carves easily in a dry state. Through the process of introducing heat, it becomes a hard stone, made from the same essential elements as the stones I carve every day. Once I realized that working ceramic encompasses both this new soft character and the hard nature of the rocks I already work, I was hooked in a way that I did not expect.

MP: Do you have a favorite memory or story to share about this year’s Conference?

JK: My best memories from this year were the result of an unfortunate travel clustercuss. The airline canceled several of my flights, and my booth bag was incorrectly routed. I showed up to the Expo floor in Vegas with no jewelry or booth materials. Many people reached out to me to offer help or to check in and see how I was doing. I felt like I had a big community rooting for me, and that was wonderful. My bag eventually showed up, and all was well.

MP: Every time I walked by your booth this year, you had a small crowd. How has your vendor experience changed over time and in the new space?

JK: My first few years vending I was concerned about bringing a certain amount of product and meeting sales goals that I had set. My outlook overall has shifted, and my conference attendance is now far more rooted in teaching and learning. I am there to make money and create more opportunities for myself, but while doing that I want to see the evolution of our industry, build up newcomers, feel like I am part of a community, and be transparent about what I do and how I do it. Especially now that I am one person in a tiny workshop, the conference experience helps me feel connected to my customers and other makers in a way that the internet cannot replicate.

The new location made everything a little more tense than usual, but I liked it. The Expo floor worked well, and I think most enjoyed the location of the classes, Expo, and rooms relative to each other.

MP: If studios or individuals want to contact you about Onetribe products, what is the best way to reach you? Is there a current average turn-around time that can be expected, or does it vary from project to project?

JK: The shop is always open at onetribe.net and I can be reached directly via the contact form there. I am most active on Instagram and post daily production process and material eye candy @onetribejewelry.

Turn-around times vary wildly on a per-project basis. Products ordered on my site usually ship within 10-14 business days. Custom jewelry work is on average three to four weeks, with complex projects taking longer. Stocked displays ship within a few days, while custom display sets and Crystal Castles depend on all of the other workloads, but are worth the wait.

MP: Is there anything else you’d like to share with The Point readership?

JK: I was delighted to see so many young companies showing great work at Conference this year. While there are some pervasive style trends, I have seen quality from a lot of people who deserve the opportunity to show us how far they can go. I encourage everyone to support small makers whenever possible. This diversity of ideas and the growing culture of positivity over pettiness are hella exciting to see.