Dominican entrepreneur featured in PANACHE magazine for jewelry line

Twenty-year-old Yaena Eugene from the village of Giraudel, and currently studying in Jamaica, has been featured in the popular PANACHE Jamaican magazine where her creativity in handmade jewelry is described as “effortless artworks.”

A self-taught jewelry designer, Eugene said that her love for the arts began at the Dominica State College (DSC) in 2013.

Starting off as just a hobby, Eugene’s mother, Daria Eugene, would purchase large amounts of beads for her to use and hours would be spent creating new styles and designs as this was a form of meditation for her.

“I got more and more interested and I just started ordering my own beads and developing myself,” she told Dominica News Online.

She now has her very own small business, ‘Khreations Jewelry’ and is steadily bringing out new designs with the use of copper, beads and gemstones.

Eugene describes the support from family and friends as “excellent” especially from her mother and father (Michael Eugene).Her father is always in search of potential clients to keep Eugene’s business going.

“They really encouraged me. My dad is always trying to find clients for me and really trying to push me to make some really intricate stuff,” she said.

As in every other small business venture, Eugene faced a few challenges in getting the support that she would like from customers to buy or order her creations; however that has not discouraged her from continuing what she loves doing.

“One of the main challenges is really getting customers to order my stuff and to really stick with the orders because true it is handmade jewelry. It is not mass produced, it is not something that you can just sit down and string together easy-peasy. It takes time and it takes materials,” she stated.

Eugene is presently pursuing a degree in Visual Arts and Culture at the Edna Manley College for Visual and Performing Arts in Jamaica.

She sees this learning institute as a major helper in her small business operations.

“Before I came here, while I was filling out my application, I was advised to not pigeon-hole myself into just sit down and do jewelry all the time. I decided to major in Sculpture and my lecturers have really been encouraging me to use my jewelry to my advantage, to use my jewelry as more sculptural pieces. I understand now what they have been trying to encourage me and this is why I feel like I have been better at what I’ve done,” she remarked.

Eugene solicits young persons who are interested in the field of jewelry making to have no fears of the ‘what if’, as there are “no limits, no boundaries” in pursuing their dreams.

“At first I was like that, but you have to just suck it up and just start, that is all you have to do. You will find that once you have started. Things will just fall in line in a way that you would have never expected. I never expected to be in a magazine, I would have never expected to be at the Edna Manley College. Just start it, and if you love it, you will keep doing it, getting better, and doors will open,” she remarked.

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