The Brooklyn Papers / Tom Callan

Henna K features jewelry by local designers including this carved jade choker by Bert Freed.

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Henna Kenigsberg, owner of the new boutique Henna K. Jewelry, has had several professions in her life, including interior decorator. But it is in jewelry design that she found her forte. Now she’s extending her talents from making jewelry to representing other local jewelers in her Cobble Hill store.

In this spacious setting, about a dozen Brooklyn artisans are "shown in their own space," says Kenigsberg. Most of these jewelers work in silver and some work in silver and gold. All have their own styles.

These jewelers make earrings ("a huge business"), rings ("also very big"), bracelets, pins and necklaces - just about everything you’d expect to find at a jewelry store. But the primary difference between Henna K. Jewelry and other shops is that here you’ll find mostly one-of-a-kind and some-of-a-kind (small runs) pieces that you can wear and "you won’t see yourself coming and going," as Kenigsberg puts it.

This is especially true of the enamel pins and necklaces set with semiprecious stones, which are Kenigsberg’s specialty.

"Enamel jewelry is by definition one-of-a-kind," Kenigsberg explains, "because even if the pieces are the same in design, the color will be different when they come out of the kiln."

And what color!

"You get an amazing color with enamel," Kenigsberg tells GO Brooklyn. "The color can be pale or soft or knock your eyeballs out."

She explains that enamel is glass ground finer than sand and heated at 1,500 degrees so it becomes a liquid. The liquid is layered onto glass or copper - a very labor-intensive process.

Kenigsberg works mostly in a technique called cloisonne after the French word "cloison," which means partition or wall. Cloisonne jewelry is made by fixing metal strips, bent to the outlines of a design, to a metal surface with solder. The resulting cellular spaces, or cloisons, are filled with vitreous enamel paste, and the piece of jewelry is then fired, ground smooth and polished.

Kenigsberg first began designing jewelry 15 years ago when she took a course in making silver jewelry. One day her teacher suggested she might like working with enamel, and did she ever. Kenigsberg says she occasionally still goes back to working with silver, but she prefers enamel, mostly because of the beautiful color she is able to produce with it.

It was Kenigsberg’s husband who suggested she take the next step and open her own boutique. On Dec. 18, 2001, Henna K. Jewelry opened. The jewelers she represents come from all walks of life. One was a biologist. Another was a day trader with Lehman Brothers. They make everything from a $15 pair of earrings to a $6,000 silver bracelet with a Japanese river scene that Kenigsberg calls an "amazing piece of art" - and everything in between.

What’s more, because they are all local artisans, they are available for custom work.

For the spring and summer, Kenigsberg suggests the light look of pearls, which can be worn either when you’re dressing up or down and look great with a tan, or beads that "add a flip of color to your summer outfit and most are under $100."

Men, women and children throughout the world and throughout the ages have worn and continue to wear jewelry - in the Arabian Desert and the Pacific Islands, in New York and New Mexico. The Babylonians, Sumerians, Hebrews, Egyptians, Greeks, Etruscans and Romans all made jewelry for both secular and sacred purposes.

And people who design jewelry have always held highly respected positions in society. Sumerian jewelers had their workshops in the temple grounds. During the Renaissance, jewelry designs were made by great artists such as Durer in Germany, and Botticelli, Ghiberti and Cellini in Italy.

Kenigsberg and the jewelers she represents are showing once again that Brooklyn deserves nothing less than the best.

Henna K. Jewelry, at 165 Court St. between Pacific and Dean streets in Cobble Hill, accepts MasterCard, Visa and American Express and is open Monday through Thursday, noon to 7 pm, and Sunday, noon to 5 pm. For information, call (718) 852-5777.

©2002 Community Newspaper Group