If you have a daughter or know a girl who attends High School North or South, you might just find her the perfect present at Charmed by Claire, housed in the first floor of the 1845 Dehart building at 60 North Main Street in Cranbury and owned by West Windsor resident Claire Morris. Among the jewelry items she carries are crystal necklaces she designs herself in Pirate and Northern Knight colors with “”WW-P Girl”” spelled out in square metal beads, and sports-theme key chains including one featuring large glass beads in school colors, a soccer ball, and a silver pirate charm.
Featuring the work of women designers – including West Windsor handbag designer Laurie O’Brien Axford – and small manufacturers is a priority for Morris, who lives in the Heathersfield development and stocks her shop’s two lavender painted rooms with jewelry, accessories, and home decor items. There is a story behind each item she stocks and Morris likes to tell tales transforming a shopping trip into a neighborly visit. “”To talk about all my different designers, we could be here for hours,”” says Morris, who met some of her designers when she and her husband, Bob, who works for American Reinsurance in Plainsboro, formerly lived in California.
On Saturday, July 17, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Morris will host a “”Meet the Designer”” event with jewelry maker Norry Coscia, of Langhorne, Pennsylvania, who uses sterling silver, freshwater pearls, and semiprecious stones in her work. Morris met Coscia through her neighbor – that neighbor’s husband and Coscia’s husband were business partners.
“”Nature inspires me. I like the outdoors,”” says Coscia, who was born and raised in Peru. Some of her work includes molds of small eucalyptus leaves. Yet her edgy modern designs point to other inspirations too. (This reporter wanted both the asymmetrical necklace with oval freshwater pearls hung like teeth from one side and swirls of sterling silver wire adorning the other and the one whose sole charm was an open weave puffed out silver box hung from its corner with a single pearl weighting its other end.)
A former sales trainer for five years at Merrill Lynch in Plainsboro, where she taught salespeople how to sell financial products to small businesses, Morris found that working with small business owners helped her realize her own dream of one day owning a shop of her own. “”I saw all these small business owners and how happy they were to be in charge of their own destiny,”” says Morris, who finished her college degree in business at 40, graduating from the University of Phoenix in San Francisco where she had a catering business.
When her family moved east, Morris took the job at Merrill Lynch. She and her husband have three children: their eldest, Erin, graduated from West Windsor Plainsboro High School in 2000 and from Salisbury University in Maryland in 2004 (she is planning to reach in Maryland in the fall); Rob is a 2003 graduate of High School South and attends Rutgers; their youngest, Brian, will be a junior in September at High School South.
Morris credits the success of her business to the fact that she first started Charmed by Claire out of her home. Already a seasoned entrepreneur from her catering business, Morris was inspired to strike out again on her own in 2001 after visiting a friend in Chicago who convinced her to start making charm bracelets.
The idea clicked and a few months later Morris’ home business selling jewelry, purses, and the charm bracelets – hence the name Charmed by Claire – was born. She marketed her merchandise through “”home parties,”” much like Tupperware parties, where friends (and friends of friends) invited guests in and Morris brought her merchandise and a hostess gift. Two years later, in November 2003, she opened her store in Cranbury. “”I was very lucky to have started my business before having a store,”” she says.
Those in search of unusual jewelry will find heaven on earth at Charmed by Claire. Monogrammed silver earrings cost $35. An “”instant present”” can be made from earrings from South Africa, made of shellacked paper and beads, which are hooked onto their own gift card with space to write in the names of the giver and recipient. A dozen glazed clay tiles – six each with a drawing of a different woman’s face and fancy hairdo – are featured on an elasticized bracelet. She also carries pewter ornaments, medallions, and pins by Cynthia Webb, another friend from Morris’ West Coast days
Handbag addicts won’t be disappointed. A particularly whimsical one is a fully beaded bag with silver Martini glasses scattered over a black or pink background. The zipper pull is the requisite stuffed olive. Designed by Seaglass – three sisters, including Laurie O’Brien Axford of West Windsor – it is larger than the usual evening bag and funky enough to carry during the day by the fashion forward. It costs $100 and includes another touch of whimsy – a packet with a few chips of sea glass.
Morris also carries elaborately embellished purses from Mary Frances, once her tennis opponent in Oakland. Fabric handbags by New Jersey designer Susy Chen are printed with cabbage roses, monkeys in the jungle, pink checks, or yellow striped canvas.
Even practical items such as eyeglass holders and identification badge straps, such as those that hold corporate ID tags, are transformed by Illinois design company Off the Cuff into stylish accessories – with metallic, silver, and glass beads.
The hardest part of her job, says Morris, is turning down many of the hopeful beginners – unknown designers who appear daily at the shop to pitch their wares. Helping her designers grow and prosper as her own business does is one of Morris’ goals.
-Caroline Calogero
Charmed by Claire Meet the Designer Event with Norry Coscia, Saturday, July 17, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., 60 North Main Street, Cranbury. 609-409-6077.
