Leaving beach behind, jeweler chooses retail. (Weekly Briefing).

STEVEN Hanna developed a passion for designing and making jewelry when he took an apprenticeship with a Venice jeweler in 1968. Three years later he opened a Venice art gallery, selling paintings, drawings, sculpture, ceramics and his jewelry lines. But Hanna, now 53, closed the business two years later to concentrate on his other obsession - surfing the waves from Ventura to Huntington Beach while supporting himself by wholesaling jewelry made from his home. In 1987, he opened Accents Jewelry Design in Santa Monica.

"The consignment stores in shopping malls were becoming outdated and closing up. I knew a lot of people who were designing jewelry and doing the craft show circuit, but there was no (permanent) outlet for this jewelry. I decided to open a store with the concept of featuring hand-made works by many designers at moderate prices.

"I have 30 designers who sell their work to me or sell it on consignment. We have designers from all over the world here. I've been in business so long I have sales reps I've been working with for 25 years. Each sales representative will have 10 or 12 different designer lines. But 25 percent of everything we sell is something I made.

"I have a workshop in my store one night a week where I teach the lost wax technique, which is a sculpted form of jewelry-making. You shape the wax with carving tools in the shape you want the piece to be, then plastic is poured around the wax, which you put in a kiln or oven. That creates a negative cavity to pour the metal into.

"I also teach how to develop a line of jewelry and how to market it. The classes are eight weeks and are (each) limited to 10 people.

"I have five employees who are apprentices. They will be moving onto their own jewelry lines and wholesaling their work to stores after a year and a half to three years.

"I have maybe 12,000 pieces of jewelry in my inventory--earrings, necklaces, bracelets, anklets, toe rings. They are in sterling silver and 14-carat gold, 18-carat gold and platinum done on request.

"The average sale is about $60. We have silver earrings that start at $4 and we have designer necklaces that sell for up to $1,000. We did $330,000 is sales last year and I think we'll do $360,000 this year. We sell 25 percent of the year's gross in December. January is the slowest (month.)"

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