Anne here — in countdown mode — putting the finishing touches on an extravagant assortment of new GlamTribale products on their way to the 2013 Christmas Arts & Crafts Festival in Ocean City, NJ, sponsored by the Jersey Shore Artisans Guild.

This show is part of a series created by JoAnne Schauf to support thousands of people and animal friends, too, in the Ocean City community. See my earlier 2013 Christmas Arts & Crafts Festival in Ocean City Taps Anne Enke As Solo Featured Artist.

Pleased, proud and also humbled to find myself as the solo featured artist, I can’t help reflecting on the fact that in seventh grade my art teacher told me I had absolutely NO creativity. For decades I believed her, although my career rise to become the Fashion Director and head of product development for Victoria’s Secret confirmed the errors of Mrs. Charnesky’s assessment of my skills. The things we do to our children!!!!

It’s not even a year ago that I took full control of making GlamTribale jewelry and now home gifts. The journey has been enormously challenging with jewelry being such a competitive category. It became clear that I had to learn how to make beads as a way of distinguishing GlamTribale jewelry from the work of other artists. In all honesty, there are necklaces that have been made and remade 3-4 times as my own skills increased.

I’m especially moved by discovering The Kibera School for Girls in Kenya, the recipient of 5% of GlamTribale revenues. My own artistry is very centered now on the Sumra and Mursi tribes of Southern Ethiopia, the entire region of Lake Turkana — home to human civilization — then traveling south into Kenya and Nairobi, where a young Dan Eldon grew up. Dan lived less than a mile from Kibera and was regularly in the slum trying to work his philanthropy magic. In a very real sense, Dan — as my muse — is going to Ocean City this weekend, too.