Her work is clearly inspired by ancient cultures as her
signature style blends texture and pattern in whimsical,
classical, but rarely traditional looks. Over 20 years Lisa Jenks’ unique eye – usually with a wink and a smile – on a variety of materials has stirred not just her imagination but ours.

Keeping a clearly identifiable look fresh can’t be easy, but Lisa Jenks has done a pretty good job of it for the past two decades. This New Yorker by way of Cleveland has established firm footing in the jewelry and home furnishings industries with her unique take on primitive modern, a style inspired by ancient cultures (Mexico, Polynesia, Africa), textures, and intricate patterns. Jenks is highly original, happily imaginative, and hugely talented and her designs are now being marketed to a much broader audience thanks to the 2006 inking of a contract with Lifetime Brands, the perfect partner to promote Jenks. She, too, realizes that the pairing offers the ideal opportunity to have her designs purchased by more people in a year than in all of the years she’s plied her craft. “The resources Lifetime offers are phenomenal,” Jenks enthuses. “The fact that they can make products in any material anywhere in the world is mind-boggling. I can design an entire table from glassware to dinnerware to flatware to home décor.” And she has.

For the past 20 years Jenks has been known for her metalware – flatware and accessories – which were derivative of her extraordinarily successful jewelry designs. But in the last year – since the signing of that Lifetime license – Jenks relishes in the delicious opportunity of working with new materials, including ceramics and glass. “It’s been a chance to stretch,” she affirms. “I’m so lucky getting a chance to do what I’ve always wanted. This isn’t work, it’s play.”

Play has shaped up to be a Jenks mantra. Her approachable, cheery – shall we say Jenksian? – collections may not be for all, but they’re certainly stirring, provocative, and eye-catching. “Lisa is a free spirit,” agrees Joe Fleece, senior V.P. product development/tabletop at Lifetime Brands. Fleece has worked closely with Jenks on the comprehensive Jenks/Lifetime launch which was unveiled at the October 2007 New York Tabletop Show. “It’s been such fun to be part of her creative process,” Fleece trumpets. “Lisa goes out on the edge to make things new and different.”

Flirting with the edge has been a Jenks raison d’être as long as she can remember. “I was always drawn to how things are put together,” Jenks reveals. “I wasn’t the typical artist who painted beautiful things, but I was the one who liked putting things together.”
When she was 16, Jenks left Cleveland to study at New York’s renowned Parsons School of Design, a memorable, life altering experience. “Overnight I became totally motivated and knew exactly what I wanted to do with my life,” she recalls. “I felt very directed.” Jenks studied fashion design. (“If I’d been aware of product design at that age,” she admits, “I’d have gone into it.”) A junior year in Hong Kong and the tremendous appeal of New York convinced Jenks that after graduation she’d open a design atelier in the city and work at being the next Calvin Klein. But years spent designing sportswear failed to spark the whole fashionista dream so Jenks took a U-turn and decided to create her own company; in 1987 Lisa Jenks Limited was born. “Fashion grew tired,” she says. “Entrepreneurs run in my family and I’ve always been very independent so it was time to do my own thing.”

A fascination with sterling was rekindled and Jenks created a collection of silver jewelry, intent on making her name a household brand à la Ralph Lauren or her fashion idol Klein. Jenks was serious about making good. She enrolled in a business course, learned how to write a business plan, and soaked up whatever she needed to know about gross margins and spread sheets. “It’s a good thing that I like that stuff,” she chuckles. “I’ve always been a combination of the creative and the analytical. It was a scary prospect starting a business and I’d angst over every detail.” With the benefit of 20 years’ hindsight, she offers, “It would have been easier if I lightened up a bit, but those first five years were pretty difficult.”

But by the sixth year Jenks had a million-dollar operation on her hands thanks to her unique and fresh take on sterling jewelry. Jenks’ bold and primitive patterns gave young women new ways to wear their personalities on their wrists, neck, and ears. The enterprise eventually moved into leather goods and small metal giftware (all über-costly because it was handmade in the U.S.), and Jenks became quite a press darling and frequent award winner. It was her innovative flatware for Sasaki in 1989 that provided entrée into the tabletop arena where she was a breath of fresh air in what was then a rather staid industry. “I never found it hard to translate my look from jewelry to home furnishings,” Jenks avers. “I’ve found my style translates pretty well...classic with a twist. Tableware was just big jewelry to me.” Over the next decade though as imports rapidly gained ground, Jenks’ handcrafted designs grew too pricey so she partnered with Lunt Silversmiths to produce a collection of frames and giftware. That relationship lasted a few years until those prices points proved too costly for the market as well.