Jeweler inspired by Las Vegas’ glitz

Kirk Baird

Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2002 | 8:43 a.m.

Art is inspiration.

Jennifer Kellogg found hers while eloping in Las Vegas.

A New Yorker, Kellogg convinced her fiance to conduct their nuptials on the Strip. So, the pair married April 14, 1999, in a small ceremony at Bellagio wedding chapel.

"It was quick, quick, quick," Kellogg said in a recent interview from her studio in New York.

But not so quick that the 31-year-old jeweler didn't take time to feed the slots for a bit.

And that's where she came up with the idea for jewelry with a casino theme.

"I love campy things: the sparkling of Vegas, the casinos it's very glitzy," she said. "And I just remember thinking about a slot machine and there were cylinders like a bangle bracelet. And quite simply that could translate into something that you could wear and that's fun."

The jewelry, what she calls the Casino 14 Collection (14 in honor of her wedding date), consists of a charm necklace, stackable rings and bangle bracelet.

The jewelry, available at jenniferkellogg.com, ranges from $80 per ring to $420 for each bracelet.

All three feature various slot icons cherries, bells, oranges, lemons, plums and the word "bars." And the stacked rings and bangle bracelets can be twisted to line up a winner.

"All my education has been in art, so I have a nontraditional jewelry education," Kellogg said. "A lot of my work has been concept-based versus (relying solely on) the materials involved silver, gold and gem stones, the finer qualities in jewelry."

The Casino 14 Collection is not the only "nontraditional" jewelry Kellogg has fashioned. The jeweler has created a popular line of necklaces, bracelets and a ring using real flowers with a gem stone in the middle.

"I think that people who have bought my jewelry in the past are people looking for something different," she said. "They're not necessarily gamblers, but they're really responding to the originality of the idea. They think it's really fun."