Today we look at the story of Nina and Susan Barker, a mother and daughter team from New Hampshire who re-ignited a family jewelry business, and have shown that as fashions change, so can your fortunes.

Susan Barker began crafting silver jewelry in the 1970’s, but her bracelets struggled to sell in her New Hampshire hometown, and after the birth of her daughter Nina she was eventually forced to put her jewelry making on the back burner and seek other methods of producing income.

The jewelry was all but forgotten for 30 years, until Nina found some of the items, and started wearing the items to her employment within the publishing industry. The chunky and stylish bracelets attracted immediate interest from co-workers in her office, who starting asking questions about them, eventually buying them off Nina. Interest was so strong, that after much persuasion from Nina, Susan began making the bracelets again, with demand so high that Nina started working alongside her mother to produce them, with Susan teaching her everything she knew about the craft of working with silver in the process.

That was four years ago, and the mother-daughter partnership has been busy ever since, finding their niche within a competitive industry, and selling their products through a combination of high-end craft shows, open studio shows and word of mouth.

Susan still crafts silver bracelets, buts has added beaded glass necklaces to her range. Although she bases herself in New Hampshire, she spends summers at her studio in Westport studio. Taking a van load of beads, tools and silver with her to Westport, she spends hours creating nature-inspired items such as fish, crabs and dragonflies.

Demand is high. Susan often takes around 150 bracelets, necklaces and earrings to a trade show, and sells around three quarters of it. This becomes even more impressive when you discover that the average sale price is $225 for a necklace, $365 for a bracelet and around $50 for a pair of earrings.

Inspired by her mother, Nina creates cuffs with modern elements such as pierced and flared silver, 18-karat gold-plated brass loop bracelets, and a variety of commissioned pieces, displaying a true natural instinct for her relatively new trade. Nina sells through her website www.ninabarker.com and at Donald Heald Antiques, 217 East 60th Ave., N.Y.

Although they cannot spend large chunks of time together, the mother and daughter converse by e-mail and meet up for silver and bead buying trips to New York.

The studio, located at 39 Boathouse Row, Westport, MA, will be open on August 22 & 23, from 11am to 5pm, as part of the South Coast Artists Open Studio Tour, and will also feature work by Susan’s niece, Poole Barker - a handmade paper artwork specialist.

For more information about the open studio tour visit www.southcoastartists.org.

For more information about Susan’s jewellery you can e-mail her at susanbarker@myfairpoint.net.