Q&A with Jeweler Jeff Bulman by Bobbi Kittner

 

1. ​With your varied business and careers what made you do a career pivot to start creating jewelry? You refer to your jewelry-making as a hobby but then also say you spend up to 4 hours a day creating your unique pieces. What makes you so driven and passionate about making jewelry?

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I own restaurants in the DMV which I started in the early 90’s. Things were going well and a friend told me he had signed up for a jewelry class at Silver Works in Glen Echo. I have always been interested in the arts and thought it might be fun. Fun it was, and I got hooked. Since then, I have taken many courses. This “hobby” turned into an obsession.

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2. You regularly exhibit selective work from your collaboration with Carrie Gustafson at Waverly. These are truly unique pieces. How did this collaboration start and how did it change your work process?

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My collaboration with glass artist, Carrie Gustafson started when my wife and I bought one of her pieces at a craft show.  We bought another piece several years later.  Then when my next big birthday was approaching in 2022, I asked for a special piece by Carrie. She sent me color samples in glass, and I looked at them and saw jewelry!  Since then, she has sent me more samples and thus the Carrie G collection was born. Working with glass, I had to learn new techniques as glass is so much more fragile than stones. One slip and it is gone.

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3. Congratulations on having three pieces selected to be a part of the METALWORK 2026 exhibit. Could you tell us more about your process and inspiration for creating these pieces?

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• The Square Statement ring came about on vacation when the only tools I had were for forming pieces in wax to be later cast in sterling. When I work in wax I start with a design and every time, I end up with a ring quite different from the idea that I started to form.

• The Phases of the Moon came about around the time of an eclipse.  I started searching for pictures of the phases of the moon and thus created the cuff on display.

• The chain, Many Links, was inspired by a commission I had done, and I wanted to do my version. To elevate the chain, I incorporated three of the links in gold.  With the price of gold so high now, adding a little goes a long way.