About the Artist

Papaver Jewelry is Maggie Kearns.  Maggie is a Portland Native, born and raised in Northeast Portland.  She went to Grant High School, and even was an extra in Mr. Holland’s Opus.  She graduated from Pacific Northwest College of Art with a BFA in Illustration in 2001. 

But in her senior year at PNCA, she came to a realization:  she didn’t really like Illustration; she liked small, sparkly, bright things.  Things to decorate a person, or a home, and she went off in a new direction.  For her senior thesis instead of doing Illustrations she built shrines.  Large boxes filled with tiny sparkly things.  And Christmas lights. And glitter.  Lots and lots of glitter.

This brought her back to what she liked to do all growing up and in high school--making jewelry.  But instead of hemp and store-bought beads, she learned how to fuse glass, and figured out how to decorate bottle caps.  These two mediums incorporate everything she loves to work with in her art:  Bright colors, Silver, Sequins, Glitter, and her own tiny doodles.

The decorated bottle caps she had had on her mind for a few years as something she would like to try.  She had seen some pins at an import store in Seattle and loved the idea, but she wanted to put her own artwork in them instead.  So she kept a lookout for the materials she would need for about two years before it all came together.  The images inside of the caps are all her own designs. 

Maggie learned how to fuse glass with her friend Iris from Iris’ mom Suzie.  Suzie started fusing glass over ten years ago, and still knows so much more about glass fusing than Maggie ever will.  Maggie’s work is characterized by the bright, happy colors in happy combinations.

Maggie works in her studio at home in Southeast Portland.  She lives with her boyfriend Brandon, a pitbull/boxer mix named Marcus, two cats: Cassady and Oscar, and now, four chickens. Thankfully, the chickens are now old enough to live outside in their coop now, they were getting a mite smelly in the living room. Brandon is the only one among all the creatures she lives with that is helpful though, he is learning the jewelry making business and someday they hope to both spend all day at home watching tv on dvd and working on jewelry (Brandon wants to spend his days also in his Pajamas).

Currently she has a booth at the Portland Saturday Market.  She is also selling at shops around the Portland area and looking to find more stores around the country.  She loves what she’s doing and hopes to continue making jewelry that fun people love for a long time to come.

Thanks for coming,

Maggie