New York artisan, Cori Morenberg, blends an earthy & elegant design sense with beautiful high quality components for a refreshingly original take on today's jewellery styles.  Her original, one-of-a-kind & limited edition designer and custom wedding jewellery invites  you to uncover your inner jewel!

Cori describes her work: "Drawing inspiration from art, music, nature and the beads and components themselves, I create original jewellery featuring semiprecious gemstones, pearls, amber, wood, glass, enamel and ceramic beads hand-knotted on silk and leather with sterling silver chain and wire accents, charms and pendants. The women who wear my jewellery appreciate that it's handmade and original.

"Hoping to offer an alternative to the soulless mass-produced items prevalent today, I take design cues from nature and embrace slight imperfections and irregularities, valuing them as reminders of the making process that later, hopefully, remind the wearer of the pieces' origins -- other hands and other places. I love scouring New York's great array of bead and jewellery supply stores for the highest quality parts and look forward to making trips worldwide to purchase parts at their sources.

"Designing jewellery evolved naturally from interests in art and working with my hands. Two years after making my first necklace I officially launched Cori M. Designs in 2002. Today I live in Upper Manhattan with my dog, Hudson, and walk daily in the last remnant of natural forest on the island."

 

October 17, 2002

Manhattan Times, Volume 3, Number 42

The Manhattan Times Profile: Cori Morenberg

By Donna LeSchander

 

Cori Moreberg, Inwood resident and jewellery designer, is a local entrepreneur with a community spirit.  Morenberg has recently launched her own Internet jewellery business, Cori M. Designs.  She offers one-of-a-kind gemstone earrings, necklaces, bracelets, and chokers hand knotted on silk and leather, with sterling silver chain and wire accents.  Her website, at www.corimorenberg.com , is informative and fun, offering lore about gemstones, care and cleaning tips for her jewellery and detailed customer service information.

 

Morenberg has been an Inwood resident for almost eight years, and worked at the New York Botanical Garden and Columbia University before starting her own business.  Always creative, she says, "I'd always done something creative; before this I had really been into pottery and worked as potter's assistant.  But it's really expensive to start a studio -- instead of start-up cost of a few hundred dollars with an online business, it's several thousand dollars.  So I quit doing that, and I was going crazy, because I like to do something with my hands (I'd been making jewellery for over two years) and just started making jewellery that people liked.  People showed interest about my pieces at work, and I started thinking about it."

 

Morenberg started believing that her passion for jewellery-making could turn into a full-time job, and created www.corimorenberg.com alone, having done only one other professional website.  "I did the whole thing." says Morenberg.  "It took me about six months.  I learned it from the inside out, which was the best way to do it.  I maintain it myself and don't have to pay anyone to do it."  And her success has been almost stratospheric.  "I'm getting 1700 hits per week."  

 

Morenberg also markets her custom jewellery at C.O. Bigelow (at 414 Sixth Avenue in Greenwich Village), at Scavengers at 218th Street and Indian Hill Road, and also has representatives in Ohio and Puerto Rico.  "Basically," she says, "people are finding me through the website.  I don't have any plans to expand beyond jewellery, maybe just to get a little bigger.  I would like to have one employee to do some of the work I don't necessarily have to do."  Morenberg notes that she plans to buy a house next year, and that her studio space will expand.

Morenberg is now making plans to attend the biggest wholesale gem and bead show in the southwest; she currently busy her materials in the wholesale district in Manhattan.  "You really can't get any better than New York City for materials like this," she notes.

 

Living and working in Inwood can't be beat, Morenberg says.  "I think it's the best neighborhood in the city.  I absolutely love the parks, the river, the woods - I love the neighborhood feel.  I was talking to a friend who came from a small town, like myself, and we agreed that it's just like a small town.  There's never a time that I don't walk outside and talk two or three times to someone on the street -- a store owner, an acquaintance, a friend."  The benefits of working from home also appeal to her.  "I can walk my dog in the middle of the day, and love not commuting the two hours a day with the bus, the money, the getting dressed.  I just love it.  I like the freedom, although I'm working harder now than I ever have before, basically from eight in the morning to eight at night."

 

Morenberg also has her pet community projects: "I'm trying to create partnerships with local organizations -- right now I've gotten the Sir William Dog Run in Fort Tryon Park to join forces with me.  I will give $5 to the dog run for every time a customer purchases my jewellery and says they want the money earmarked for the organization.  I would also love to create similar partnerships with other Inwood/Washington Heights organizations."

 

Morenberg's jewellery is also available through the Muse Shop Online (www.museonline.net); and at Home/Trunk shows and Studio shows.  She also periodically sells her items on eBay (her seller ID is corimdesigns).

Cori M. Designs...Uncover Your Inner Jewel!