This week’s Meet-a-Mom features Denville’s own Jaclyn Beckerman, Mom of two, artist, designer, and owner of Jaclyn Nicole Designs. Read to find out how she pushed through a dark time in her life to truly finding herself and her passion.
How many children do you have and what are their age(s)?
I have 2 incredible little girls, Madelyn recently turned 6 and Olivia is 3.5.
Where are you from originally and how long have you lived in Morris County?
I was actually born and raised in Denville and went to Lakeview, Valleyview and Morris Knolls! I left at 18 for college at Rutgers, New Brunswick, and just returned 3 years ago at 35 unexpectedly as a newly single mom.
Favorite things to do with your kids?
We always love the Denville Library events – we’re so lucky to live in a town where our library goes out of their way to create great activities for our kids from crafts to gardening to story times. And of course we spend a lot of time at the Gardner Field playground as well.
What’s one thing people would be surprised to know about you?
I trained and practiced as a life coach which led me to follow my dream of seeing the world by backpacking around the world by myself for 2 years. I traveled by bus, train, plane and even safari vehicles, throughout South & Central America, Africa, India and Southeast Asia.
Mid-way through my trip I fell in love with a man from South Africa and when I finished traveling, I moved to Cape Town to be with him. He proposed, we got married, moved to Johannesburg, and had 2 daughters over the next 7 years. One month after giving birth to my youngest, my world as I knew it fell apart. I discovered my husband, who had always projected nothing but love, commitment and devotion, had been living a secret life that I knew nothing about, for years! The depth of lies and gaslighting that came to light was nothing short of traumatizing and led me to pack up my life, take our infant and 3 year old, and return to the home that I grew up in, Denville, to rebuild my life as a newly single mother.
It took me a while to find work, and 2 months after I did, Covid hit, and I was promptly laid off. Living with my high risk parents, I pulled my girls out of daycare and we all stayed home for a long, dark year. But about 1 year in is when I decided I needed to focus on self care to pull myself out of a dark emotional space. I taught myself to crochet, then started making seed bead bracelets for friends with empowering words on them to support them, then I experimented with personalized resin jewelry, and then, finally, I found somewhere to take metalsmithing classes and began them in July 2021.
Fast Forward to now, I have found my passion and my purpose and I have never been happier. I discovered an artistic talent I didn’t know I possessed and the response to my work has been incredible and life affirming. Not even 8 months in, you can already find my work in retail stores in Summit NJ at Mondo Marketplace, right here in Denville at The Wren and the Raven, and soon to be at 11 Eleven Healing in Ridgewood NJ. And, of course, you can shop directly on my website, www.jaclynnicoledesigns.com.
Anyone special you’d like to thank for helping you through parenthood?
I’d like to thank my parents. While there are plenty of things we butt heads on or might argue about, and it can be far from easy sharing space sometimes, I don’t know how I would have survived the past few years without them. I am lucky and grateful to have parents that I know, without a doubt, I can count on when I really need them, and that they will always have my back where it counts. As a single mom I wouldn’t have been able to get to where I already have in my business, and certainly not where I’m going, without their support.
Tell me more about your business venture.
I am the jewelry artist and CEO behind jaclyn nicole, llc. Since training as a life coach in 2008, I have lived my life, and supported others, from the perspective of self growth and development. I now incorporate my life philosophy of growth, resilience, abundance and generating the energy you want to attract in your life, into my jewelry with intention. At the heart of my mission, my goal is to help my clients create the life they want by giving them the ability to wear their inspiration to remind them to access and live from their inner joy, strength, peace, and power, one piece of jewelry at a time.
How has this community been instrumental in getting you to where you are now?
I could go on and on about this but since this is the local moms network, I’ll focus there. I have met loads of amazing local moms who have had huge impacts on my journey as a jeweler. Some have offered their services, some have purchased special pieces from me, some are always recommending me whenever they can and sharing their experience of my work in their circles and on social media, some actively engage on my social media pages which helps my business grow, and some have just been incredibly supportive and encouraging which also makes an impact. It was actually a mom I met at story time hosted by the Denville Library at Gardner field who first pointed me towards The Visual Arts Center of NJ in Summit for in person metalsmithing classes, to which I promptly registered. And it was multiple local moms who suggested my work would be a great fit at The Wren and The Raven which let me to approach them. I love how supportive our community of moms is and feel lucky to be a part of it.