In January, Moncton jewellery artist Nancy Allen, of SNAZ Designs, spent three days in a luxurious penthouse suite overlooking Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles, showing her lamp-worked glass, Swarovski crystal and sterling silver jewellery collections, and selecting pieces of her work for Golden Globe award nominees and producers.

She was the first New Brunswicker to be invited to the Golden Globe Awards gifting suite organized by Dubois, Pelin and Associates, which also manages gifting suites at the Emmys, Cannes Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival.

The chance to have her craftsmanship captured in the lights of the Golden Globes prompted Allen to design a new collection called Peacock to be ‘red carpet worthy’ and she now plans to design complementary cuff-links for men. In the afterglow of the event, Adina Porter (True Blood and The Newsroom) was photographed wearing Glamour earrings, and Sandra Vidal (The Bold and the Beautiful) a Pastiche pendant, at the HBO post-Globe party.

Allen says this exposure has already opened new doors, including a chance to attend the Cannes Film Festival in France and to have her work featured in Dancing with the Stars, but she is being carefully strategic.

“My first priority is to build on my social media platform and revamp my website,” says Allen, who has been designing jewellery for six years. “This really gave my business a whole new lift and put some life into me. When you see famous people wearing your pieces to parties, then you suddenly realize, hey, this is good!”

By Deborah Carr