Edgewood Hosts Jewelry Trunk Show

Lily of the Valley Necklace by Alexandra Irene Jackson.

Edgewood Orchard Galleries will be hosting a jewelry trunk show and a reception to meet jeweler Alexandra Irene Jackson on Saturday, August 16 and Sunday, August 17. Jackson will be present at the gallery from 10 am – 5 pm on both days to meet visitors and answer questions about her work. Refreshments will be served, and the public is invited to attend.

Jackson lives and works in her 230-year-old home along the Millstone River near Princeton, NJ, with her husband and two young daughters. Throughout her own childhood, she spent summers in Fish Creek with her grandmother Irene Haberland, who started Edgewood Orchard Galleries in 1969. Irene taught jewelry making at the Layton School of Art in Milwaukee during the 1920s and1930s and always had a selection of antique estate jewelry in the corner of the gallery. Jackson calls her jewelry business Secret Garden Creations for the magical hidden garden at her grandmother’s house on Peninsula Players Road. Irene, who died in 1978, had a major influence on all her grandchildren, including her granddaughter Nell Jarosh, who with her husband J.R. now runs the gallery.

Jackson studied the arts extensively at the University of Pennsylvania, including printmaking and art history, as well as glassblowing at the Tyler School of Arts in Philadelphia. While home raising her two young daughters, she revisited her love of textiles by taking up knitting and sewing using rich materials and unique accents. Upon learning that sterling wire could be knitted, she branched out into crafting jewelry, a path which her grandmother had traveled 70 years earlier. Subsequent classes in casting and enameling on the east coast and at the Peninsula Art School in Fish Creek have contributed to her sensitive craftsmanship.

In addition to Jackson’s jewelry trunk show, Edgewood Orchard Exhibit III will remain up through Tuesday, August 19, featuring the work of local painters Judi Ekholm and Craig Blietz, as well as artwork from the 150 other artists. The gallery’s newly opened sculpture garden is also open daily with new work just delivered from Sturgeon Bay architect and sculptor David Valentine.

Edgewood Orchard Galleries is located at 4140 Peninsula Players Road, one block east of Highway 42 between Juddville and Fish Creek.

For more information call 920.868.3579, email [email protected], or visit http://www.edgewoodorchard.com