An Oscar Experience: Karen McClintock

Marcia Gay Harden wearing Karen McClintock necklace & earrings at the OSCAR’s gift lounge.

The talented jewelry designer, Karen McClintock (Ottawa jewelry designer) captured our attention last year with her 2011 Jewelry collection! Since our last conversation, the US has taken notice, inviting Karen to The Oscars gift lounge! Karen was given the opportunity to show off her lovely designs to stars and media involved with The Oscars award ceremony. Now that Karen is back from LA (her first trip to LA), we had a conversation about her Oscar experience! Celebs like Louis Gossett Jr., Melissa McCarthy, Sugar Ray Leonard have become fans!

A.  Its a combination of excitement and nervousness. You just don’t know what to expect. But I was really excited. What was even better was the reaction, because I had no idea what the reaction was and I didn’t know what to expect. It was more than overwhelming. Everyone loved it! And you know when people are just being nice, but this was exceptional. So it was a mixture of excitement with not knowing what to expect.

A. The first big celebrity would be Marcia Gay Harden and right behind her was Penelope Ann Miller and then Teri Polo came in shortly after. She spent a lot of time in our room because there were 8 tables and Terry was hilarious, engaging, and she just loved my jewelry! She spoke about my jewelry in another room, because there were 8 rooms with 8 tables per a room so when the stars come in they have to go through security and then they are given a host to take them through and they are pretty well obligated to go to every table if they choose to do this. But Terry came in and spend about an hour in our room. They were all really nice though.

A. There was Misty Kingma (LA television personality) and she was going to be on the red carpet doing interviews. She had a dress, but nothing to wear with it. She tried on one of my necklaces and when I gave it to her, she looked like she was going to cry! Marcia Gay Harden would not take the piece off. When she walked back past our room I offered her one with a magnetic clasp, which most  people like. She said, Well, only if its exactly the same! Because I`m not taking this one off unless its exactly the same! She was wearing it to an Oscar party that night. Cloris Leachman,  is in a category  all on her own, her former daughter-in-law was at the media publicist party that Thursday night and she told me Cloris would love my jewelry, and to be prepared. On the Saturday, she didn’t come in when scheduled, so I thought maybe she wasn’t coming, but later on, she came in with her publicist and her daughter. It turns out they were looking for me! Cloris went berserk over the pieces I had and began piling it up on the table. She began to layer shorter necklaces and it was just lovely on her. I was told not to worry, that this would pay off as they want me to work with her in the future. Its a compliment when you come into a new market and people love your pieces. When money isn’t an object and they love my jewelry, it means a lot.

A. We now have contacts with certain retailers that we didn’t before, people that said, “You’ve got to get in there,” and we all know its who you know, so that is a positive. In Ottawa, I was everywhere, on the radio and television. It’s propelled me to being more international in the eyes of people in Ottawa and that’s huge. When I was in Holt Renfrew for 11 seasons, it gives you credibility. People might not know me or my jewelry, but they do know Holt and Renfrew and they know the Oscars. From my point of view, that what I can take from it. We’ve already been asked to go to the Emmys, Golden Globes and The Oscars again, so that’s a really good sign and this is the gift lounge which carries a lot of credibility and it was very classy all the way.