Buffalo Grove jewelry artist draws on India for inspiration

By Ruth Gesmer Silverman - Daily Herald Correspondent

Sept 15, 2006

Carri Goodman loves jewelry so much she flies back and forth to India several times a year, going deep into mines where she selects stones to be shipped back home.

From her Deerfield studio, the Buffalo Grove woman designs, produces and distributes fine and costume jewelry with Indian artisans.

"My diamond broker and mentor introduced me to these places, which are usually closed to the general public," she said. "I feel privileged to be allowed into the mines and the workshops where the jewelry is made."

For the past several years, Goodman has turned a childhood love of plastic jewelry from bubble gum machines, into spiritual connection with hand-selected diamonds, emeralds, tourmalines, rubies, onyx and more, as they emerge from the ground.

She just sent one of  her newest creations - hand-cut black onyx and more beads, on a gold rope chain, to form a triple-strand adjustable necklace - by express mail to New York.

It was to be raffled Thursday evening at a fund-raiser sponsored by Jodi Spiegel Foundation, to benefit cancer research.  Last year, proceeds from the event, went to the Sloan Kettering Institute.

Spiegel, who died of breast cancer at the age of 41, was the sister-in-law of one of Goodman’s close friends.

Goodman said, “It should sell for somewhere between $2,300 and $2,500.”  Proceeds from all goods raffled or auctioned will benefit a charity, to be selected by the non-profit foundation.  Goodman sells her fine jewelry to private clients: she markets her costume jewelry to small boutiques.

For details, e-mail carrigoodman@somanyroadsllc.com

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