JENNIFER RABE-MORIN
Jennifer-Rabe was raised in Spain by loving parents who were excellent writers and masterful with watercolor and collage. They would write funny stories for the three children and encouraged them to be creative. Her parents were the first Bohemians surrounded by English ladies and lords, writers, painters, sculptors, and dancers. It was this elegant, creative environment that inspired her to fall in love with creating art.
As a child her passions were hunting berries and collecting dragonflies and butterflies which were meticulously arranged under glass. It was in High School in the United States that she began making jewelry. She was inlaying stone in intricate Egyptian inspired designs and building large hollow bracelets with hinges and clasps.
Her further education began with a Bachelors in Fine Art but it was a trade school in London England that opened up the unlimited possibilities of jewelry. Teachers there shared their elaborate pieces for Persian customers while the museums displayed huge exhibitions from ancient to modern jewelry. Jennifer returned to the US to complete a Masters in Fine Art and a Teaching Credential in Art.
In Santa Barbara, California she started winning some of her many design awards, starting when she was working for a jewelry store that had other very talented designers. It was here also that she happily met her future husband Gregore. Together they make a formidable jewelry design and consulting team.
GREGORE MORIN
Gregore was born and raised in Vancouver Canada surrounded by loving parents who supported his creative endeavors . His parents had their own many talents one in art and sports, the other business.
They let their two sons explore whatever interested them. Creativity was always high on the list of daily activities, the freedom to wander the whole day entertained by creating worlds unto themselves, conquering construction projects in the backyard creek, to reverse engineering their toys, (taking them apart to the chagrin of their parents), just to see how they worked. Sadly not many toys made it back together again. Gregore never seemed to waste a moment, even packing in creative activities into every day chores. The daily walk to and from school he whittled so many figurines he left a permanent trail of woodchips in his path, many a kitchen knife went missing during this era.
His love of art was also nurtured by a deep sense of connection to artists of the past to present, from comic book art to those who made the magnificent Haida Totem poles of his British Columbia countryside.
In high school a metal working class led to an interest in machining and jeweley. It was a synchronistic event that his neighbor offered him an apprenticeship in the fine art of jewelry design.
It was at a jewelry store in Santa Barbara, where he now lives, that he began to nurture the possibilities of design, it was also where he met his future wife Jennifer. His sense of design went through a massive growth because he was inspired by the multitude of famous designers who had left designs behind. He spent hours nightly, drawing by using their ideas as inspiration which led to his own insights about what makes good design. It was here that his distinctive style was born and Gregore won the first of many design awards.
Today Gregore’s voracious appetite for new ideas, experimentation, exquisite detail and his innate playfulness are sharply reflected in his magnificent jewelry designs and object d’art.
