Read Rebeca's Artist Statement

Kathy (Kat) Wisniewski Production Manager, Weaver and Instructor The friendly voice who answers most of our calls and helps you complete your phone orders belongs to Kat. She helps fulfill orders and restock supplies. Kat also maintains the jewelry inventory and handles wholesale jewelry orders. She teaches a few classes a month and weaves production pieces. Kat has been making jewelry since she first beaded bracelets on a seed bead loom at age 13. She is an entirely self-taught jewelry artist with a wide range of design techniques. In 2005 she officially started her small home-based jewelry business and website under the name Elemental Art Jewelry and has since sold her work mostly at various local craft shows throughout the summers. Kat's main focus is chainmaille and wire designs using sterling, copper, semi-precious stones and glass beads. Contact Kat at kat@bluebuddhaboutique.com.

Jennifer Hohe Inventory Coordinator and Weaver The monumental task of controlling inventory stock levels and overseeing quality control is in Jen's hands. She is responsible for managing many of the day-to-day procedures in the workshop. In addition to quality control, kit-assembly, and order packing, Jen helps keep our office running smoothly. She organizes our office, keeps us stocked with order supplies, and makes sure we never run out of tumbled rings. Jen is also one of the voices on the other end of the line who takes your orders and answers your inquiries. As if that weren't enough, she also weaves some of our production pieces. While pursuing her degree in Art at Northeastern Illinois University, Jen took a Metals class out of interest, immediately fell in love with the medium, and has since attained her BA in Small Metals/Jewelry. Jen is addicted to the painstaking, step-by-step processes involved in creating wearable pieces of art. In addition to making jewelry, Jen enjoys creating small-scale sculptures and two-dimensional framed metal "paintings". Her work is influenced by themes of nostalgia, emotion, and sentimentality. She hopes to one day have her own little space to sell her work.

Vanessa Walilko Weaver & Instructor Vanessa teaches several classes a month and weaves many of the production pieces. Vanessa has been fiddling with her fingers since she was a kid, starting at the age of three with her first Lego kit. At the age of nine, she took a beaded jewelry class and her life was forever changed. She has been making beaded jewelry ever since, and launched Kali Butterfly in order to sell her own jewelry. She is a 2008 Gold Medal winner of the 2008 Fire Mountain Gems and Beads Annual Beading Contest, and two of her earlier designs were chosen as finalists in 2005 and 2007. Jewelry is Vanessa's life: she works as a production assistant for another Chicago jeweler when she is not crafting maille or her own beaded designs. She has been with Blue Buddha Boutique since May 2006. Contact Vanessa at vanessa@bluebuddhaboutique.com.

Emily Fiks Quality Controller, Order Processor Tens of thousands of rings pass through Emily's hands for quality control each day she's here, and she also helps pack many customer orders. Thanks to her efforts, we are able to ship most orders within one business day. Emily came to Blue Buddha as an inventory assistant in the summer of 2008. Originally arriving here nearly oblivious to chainmaille jewelry, Emily started to feel addicted after one class at Lillstreet. Although jewelry inventory seems to take up most of her spare time, a lot is spent in school full time. Currently Emily is pursing a degree in English at Northeastern Illinois University. After Northeastern, beauty school might be in sight. Besides school and work Emily loves vintage clothes—buying, wearing, sewing, and altering. She also loves animals, cooking, and 70s/80s punk and pop. Making jewelry has a special place in her heart.

Jenna Deidel Inventory Assistant, Social Branding Coordinator Jenna sifts through 100,000+ rings each day she's here, to carfeully remove bad rings and keep our quality control standards high. She also takes some of our Blue Buddha photographs and maintains our social networking profiles. Jenna moved to Chicago from Boulder, CO in 2003 in pursuit of a BA in Photography from Columbia College Chicago as well as a professional career in dance. Since then, she is proud to have earned both. She began dancing professionally with Chicago Tap Theatre in 2005 and has had the thrilling opportunity to perform for countless audiences here in Chicago as well as in Southern France and New York City. When she's not tap dancing, Jenna works an artist guide at the Museum of Contemporary Art and as a teaching artist in two third grade classrooms with Redmoon Theater's School Partnership Program. Jenna has loved becoming part of the chainmaille community with B3 and can't wait to meet you on Twitter and Facebook!

Jason Scerena Inventory Assistant Jason joined our team in October 2009 and is responsible for anodizing niobium and keeping our pre-bagged inventory well-stocked. Born not so long ago, in a land not too far away, Jason was drawn to the city of Chicago for it's rich culture and proximity to home. He attended the Illinois Institute of Art where her obtained a Bachelors of Fine Arts in digital media and animation. You will soon be able to see his work at JasonScerena.com. He has a variety of hobbies and interests which include shiny objects, painting miniatures, pretending, growing plants, comics, learning, yard sales, art, geology, mythology, funology. Being an avid game player and a fantasy aficionado, he was no stranger to chainmaille's protective capabilities, but was surprised that it had applications outside armour. He's proud to be a part of our growing team and is looking forward to becoming a valuable asset to Blue Buddha Boutique.

Zeddicus Zul Zorander Company Mascot Zed's antics never fail to make us laugh when things get hectic and stressful. As of spring 2010, you can find Zed hiding in all of our print advertisements.

"One must be a work of art, or wear a work of art."
--Oscar Wilde

• Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum
• AIDS/Lifecycle
• Airsources (proceeds benefit Pulmonary Fibrosis research)
Albany Park Chamber of Commerce
• Anti-Cruelty Society
• Chiaravalle Montessori School
• Chicago Tap Theatre
• Coalition for Pulmonary Fibrosis
• Gan Shalom Early Childhood Education Center
• Lillstreet Art Center
• Parker For Adults: Day and Evening Courses
• pulmonary fibrosis foundation
• SHAC 7