Fossil Rain jewelry dazzles with originality

Lorraine Farrell carefully removes the plastic display case and quietly slips on a bracelet and a necklace before she opens her jewelry store, Fossil Rain. The jewelry she wears will serve as a model and conversation piece for her and her customers. \nShiny sterling silver jewelry with gemstones, minerals and fossils -- such as the accessories Farrell is wearing -- fill every corner of the room, hanging from fixtures on the windows and sitting on shelves. Fossils from Brazil, the Czech Republic, Italy, Arkansas and Iowa -- just to name a few -- are placed within the jewelry displays. Pieces of colorful coral reefs and big chunks of pure white calcite easily catch the eye. The sound of a trickling stone-accented fountain adds to the abundance of pieces of nature filling the store. \nA small sign, a letter from Farrell to her customers, sits near the bottom of the counter. It reads "The metalsmithing techniques I employ are purposefully minimal, allowing the inherent beauty of each stone and fossil to carry the design." \nFossil Rain, located downtown at 115 N. College Ave., features one-of-a-kind, handmade jewelry created by Farrell. The small business is also a studio where she makes the jewelry and a gallery, where she showcases and sells her work. \n"I love making the jewelry first and foremost, but I almost equally enjoy researching and purchasing the fossil and mineral specimens (to make the jewelry)," Farrell said. \nFarrell, originally from Indianapolis, came to Bloomington in 1971 to earn her undergraduate degree in Fine Arts at IU. She has always worked in visual arts, such as graphic design. But in 1996, she found her niche in the arts field -- jewelry-making -- and decided to make a career and a business out of it. \nShe apprenticed under a woman named Kris Perry, and after three months they went into business together. Farrell had taken metalsmithing classes at IU, so she was familiar with the terms and tools and quickly caught on to the craft. In 2000, Perry decided to go back to school for her master's, so Farrell became sole proprietor of their business, Fossil Ago-go. \n"It worked out well for both of us," Farrell said. "All of my adult life I wanted to own my own business." \nShe wanted to change the name of the store and discussed many different names with her family and friends. She knew she wanted to keep the word "fossil" in the name because fossils are "what makes the business distinctive." She chose Fossil Rain on a whim, and the idea for the store's logo came at the same time. \nFarrell takes pride in how she displays the jewelry in her store and routinely changes the store's set-up, in order to "keep things fresh." \n"It's fun to shift things around," she said.\nFossil Rain customers can see the jewelry being created right in the store, and Farrell said this adds to the store's atmosphere. "I think people enjoy handmade, original work," Farrell said. "The perceived value of the product goes up when the artist is on site." \nFarrell enjoys the business aspect of the job as well as the artistic. Farrell has three employees to help her out -- two production jewelers and one sales clerk. However, Farrell still interacts a lot with her customers and often custom designs pieces for them. \nHer continuous custom orders are an example of her dedication to customer service, which she said is her "top priority." \nFarrell often learns new techniques and gets advice from other jewelry designers. She says jewelers will stop by her store and share information or to talk about a certain project.\nOne such artist is Marilyn Greenwood, a local jewelry designer who owns a part of By Hand Gallery, located at 109 Fountain Square Mall, where she sells her work. \n"(Farrell) has a very good sense of color and design," Greenwood said. The pieces of jewelry Farrell makes can take anywhere from one to eight hours to design and create, depending on how complicated the particular piece she's working on. For example, a single piece (single stone) choker necklace took her an hour and a half to create.\nShe tries to keep costs low for her customers by using a mathematical formula to price the items. The formula takes into consideration competition, cost of materials and labor.\n"People don't feel like they have to win the lottery to shop here," Farrell said. "College kids don't have $100 to spend on a piece of jewelry." \nShe offers low-priced items, such as $5 beaded bracelets in various colors.\nEven though the retail of the store brings in the most revenue for Farrell, she is also building wholesale accounts across the country. She makes pieces and sells them to other businesses at discounted prices. She custom designs wholesale pieces, but her Web site, www.fossilrain.com, showcases the pieces that are already up for sale. \nFarrell's husband Rick, who is an artist and a computer specialist, built and designed the Web site so it is user-friendly. It shows pictures and the prices of her jewelry. Customers can order an item featured online by calling or e-mailing Fossil Rain. \nFarrell purchases the fossils, gemstones and minerals for her jewelry at rock and gem shows around the country. \n"It's about style and less about metal work; it's more about fossils and stones themselves," Farrell said, noting that she goes to three shows a year on average. \nFellow jewelry designer and friend, Bette Conway has had her work for sale at Fossil Rain for about a year, which has been beneficial for her. \n"I think our work is very complementary to each other. It's a good match," Conway said. "Lorraine is outstanding in her sense of display." \nConway also admires how Farrell runs Fossil Rain. \n"You'll find in the arts sector, being an accomplished artist and a businessperson don't go hand in hand," Conway said. "Art should still be art, and it has to come from the heart." \nShe said often the business aspect begins to become before the artistic, but Farrell remains to be both a good artist and good businesswoman.\nFarrell said her downtown, close-to-campus location also contributes to her success.\n"It's a wonderful location," Farrell said. "I have good business neighbors. They are well established, so I get a lot of foot traffic from them." \nFarrell said the absolute best means of advertising for her is word-of-mouth through customers. "It's a very potent way of advertising," Farrell said. "The customers are like walking billboards."\nFarrell has donated jewelry to fund-raising projects for not-for-profit organizations, which Farrell refers to as a "win-win situation" because it helps the organization and is another form of advertising. \nWhat is Farrell's favorite piece to make? She obviously needs to think about this question -- she sits back in her chair behind a table filled with colorful gems and shiny stones, closes her eyes and smiles. \n"I love it all; I like learning new technology. I love the process of learning, it's very important to me," Farrell said. "I love them all, but if I had to pick one, it would be a bracelet -- that is a signature piece for the shop." \nFarrell's love and knowledge of her craft and the arts shows simply by talking and getting to know her. \n"She is very supportive of the arts and is attuned to that," Conway said. "She's a really wonderful person"