2024 Kringle Featured Artist, Carolyn Keys

By Chris Handschin

This year we are proud to present Carolyn Keys as our home-grown featured artist!

Perhaps it is because Haycock Township is so nature-abundant that Carolyn draws inspiration from her surroundings and interweaves her unique style with a strong working background in architectural form. Her bold designs are fashion-forward, unique and recognizable. 

Carolyn Keys is the website address for her business, and the name compelled the question, “Why Keys?”  She explained that Keys, being her middle name, had a catchy ring.  She also uses a stellar configuration of the letters in that name to create her signature logo!  

Carolyn’s parents, residents of Haycock township, are both gifted hand workers, but it was her father who introduced her to the gratification of creative endeavors.  In his woodshop, sketching, experimenting and creating with wood, this all inspired her artistic sense at an early age.  After early adult years of college, and working at design firms in Philadelphia and beyond, she has settled into rural living in rustic Haycock.  From her loft studio which she designed and sculptor/husband, Justin Long built, Carolyn draws out the designs, selecting the materials she wishes to use, then executes the pieces from raw metals to finished designs, only outsourcing her designed cast pieces, and even those she refines to make the final customer-ready item.  From concept to finished piece, her hands are involved. That is the gratification for her.  At 45, she sees jewelry-making as a lifelong career as it allows for her own endless creativity as well as personal fulfillment. 

Carolyn started her professional life after graduating from Drexel University, having majored in Interior design.  She began as an architectural designer, working for various design firms in Philadelphia and then in Bucks County, for Sullivan Building and Design. After ten years of working with a computer, she longed to be working creatively instead, -with her hands.  The architectural discipline of that decade is not lost on her though, as Carolyn’s designs incorporate both geometric shapes and nature-inspired aspects; leaves, trees, and-- yes, even snakes! Although a college graduate, Carolyn is virtually self-taught as a jeweler, although she admits to relying on YouTube for technical support occasionally. 

Carolyn’s medium of choice is metal because of its malleability and strength.  She works with silver, brass and gold fill but also incorporates thin shapes of finely polished ebony and mahogany in some of her designs. All pieces, regardless of material used, are in the $80.00 to $300.00 price range.  Her latest fascination is blending metal with semi-precious stones.  Recently, she has created a line of silver with turquoise and silver with opal necklaces and rings.  When asked about the inspiration for these unique necklace’s stone settings, she said it comes first from a practical sense, as each stone is first wrapped in metal and then she must invent a way to hang it on the chain with an artistic flair, unique to the market. 

Fortunately for our Haycock Historical Society annual fundraiser, Carolyn explains that Kringle is the only “show” she participates in!  The rest of her work is wholesale to purchasers such as Dandelion and Mitchner Museum Gift Shop. We hope that means we are doing something right! With nearly 2000 guests each year, exposure for artists is phenomenal at Kringle Christmas Shoppe.

Carolyn will be at the show, alongside her display for a ” Meet & Greet” on Saturday, December 7th, from 11:00 am until Noon.