Repurposing Sterile IVF Needles is how now Mom of twins, Jamie Kushner Blicher coped with her infertility journey.
Jamie an artist, who was emotionally struggling after three years of what seemed like a never-ending attempt to get pregnant, took those one of those damn IVF needles one day, pumped it full of ink, and pushed out all her emotions onto a canvas! She then shared her art on social media without explaining. When she did share the heavy secret backstory of her art, a large and incredibly encouraging community cheered her on. And that’s how her company ‘Glitter Enthusiast’ was born.
Today, Jamie is proud to report that she is a mother of two incredible twin boys. This Glitter Enthusiast’s mission is to educate, support, and empower all women, but especially the 1 in 4 who are going through their own infertility journey.
A portion of every sale of Jamie’s art which is INCREDIBLE, is donated to RESOLVE, a national non-profit organization providing free/low-cost support and educational programs to meet the needs of women and men diagnosed with infertility.
A self-taught artist, Jamie is using IVF tools to make art and conversation. Since 2016, she’s been using her art to help bring calm and happiness to others who have gone through, or are still going through their infertility journeys. In 2017, her work was exhibited in Washington, D.C. through The ART of Infertility, a non-profit group striving to break the silence around the experience of infertility through art and storytelling.
Jamie also has made several prints available exclusively to lifestyle brand Oliver Gal. You can purchase these prints through various major retailers from Amazon or Neiman Marcus or directly through Oliver Gal. Or you can commission her to make something special for you. Many Fertility Clinics are commissioning her work!
Jamie lives with her husband, her twin boys, and their labradoodle named Gem in their very noisy house in Rockville, Maryland.
Meet Jamie Kushner Blicher in this podcast of our live conversation on The Debbie Nigro Show or read the transcript below instead. Take a moment to see her amazing art at GlitterEnthusiast.com.
AUDIO TRANSCRIPT:
0:00:00
It’s time for the Debbie Nigro Show with Debbie Nigro, who says she’s still a babe, or at least she thinks she still is. That’s right, attitude is everything, and Debbie’s delusionally young. No one sees the glass of Cabernet half full like Debbie. She’s fresh air with a magnetic flair. Some day has arrived, and as far as she’s concerned, it’s time to roll.
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It’s a beautiful morning.
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I think I’ll go outside for a while.
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Just taking some clean, fresh air. Oh, every day is great when you get up and you breathe.
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Let me tell you, everybody, I’m Debbie Nigro. What’s going on? Today is the day of the week. I shine a light on all the stuff that I think you should know about to stay alive, right? Call it Wellness Wednesday. And that encompasses a lot of different stories I’ve come across and people I’ve come across in the last week since we last talked about this stuff that I hope can shine a light on some ideas that you might be thinking about, some problems you may be having, some issues that need resolving in your life. I’m always putting the light in the dark and hope in the day because that’s the kind of girl I am. I’m a self-proclaimed dealer in hope. So I love to shine a light on people who are showing me by example that anything is surmountable, no matter how difficult the problem in life. So ladies and gentlemen, my first guest today is coming in right now at the top of the hour. I heard about her through a gal pal who contacted me and said, ìYou know, thereís a very interesting young woman who has done something spectacular. Sheís a friend of my daughter-in-lawís and well, and she went on to tell the story.î So let me just tell you quickly. A company was born out of a motherís struggle to give birth. Repurposing sterile IVF needles is now how this wonderful girl you’re gonna meet right now Jamie Kushner Blitcher or Bleacher ? I hope I’m saying it right Jamie let me know (it’s pronounced Bleacher ) Jamie had to cope with very difficult infertility journey. Jamie is an artist by trade not formally trained, but boy was she struggling man with what seemed like this never-ending process you know and then one day she just like said you know took one of those damn IVF needles and pumped it full of ink and she shoved out all her emotions on a canvas and woohoo! Glitter Enthusiast her company was born. You got to hear this story and you got to meet Jamie. Hello welcome to my show Jamie.
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Hi thank you so much for having me and thank you Laura Patron for the intro. I love how you just described that.
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That was awesome.
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And it’s nature. Oh, you’re awesome, Jamie. You’re awesome. You’re a resilient girl. You know, sometimes we get tested, right, when we’re trying to accomplish things in our lives. And I know there’s many mothers out there like you. There are many mothers like you who have been struggling to conceive. So how long were you trying before you had your lovely twins? Yeah, so it took us three
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years and it was three long, long years. We lived in New York City and we moved back to, we live in Bethesda, Maryland and thinking that we were going to have a baby in a second, as you do, and it didn’t go that way and it was, it was just emotionally gut-wrenching. It was just so hard to see what I thought. I would go to the farmer’s market and think everyone was pregnant, and my husband would be like, wait, who’s pregnant? And I’m like, everyone. Oh, my gosh. It just did not work for us.
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And I know a lot of young women who also had a lot of issues. It took them a very long time, but also some great success stories. So you had this crazy moment. When we’re losing it, we each do something different. And so at your moment of losing it, you took one of these IVF needles, in vitro fertilization, that’s what IVF stands for, and you stuck some ink in there because you’re an artist, and then you just started drawing with it?
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Yeah, so my main medium is ink on paper anyway and I use something called the Yubo paper that’s a it’s it’s like a paper mixed with a plastic like it’s the middle there so it holds ink very well that makes sense. And I was painting all the time because that’s what I do when I am struggling and that’s what I do when I’m happy that’s what I do when I’m sad that’s what I do when I’m frustrated, I really get things out. Art therapy is real. I one day just looked over at my IVF needles that weren’t used. They give you so many at the beginning of your IVF cycles, and I went through so many cycles. I had all these needles built up, and I was like, I got to take power. I was like, what happens if I put some ink in here and put it on the paper what would happen, what would come out. And I was like expecting it to look terrible and what came out was just, I feel like it was magic. Oh, it’s magic. And all of a sudden I was like, this is, what a physical metaphor this is. I’m taking control back of it and creating something beautiful and
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moving forward and that was my motto for IBS. Amazing, amazing. Your work is beautiful, incredible. I know you started posting it on social media before you told anybody the back story of what was behind it and you had a huge amount of people. Once you did reveal, you know, the inspiration for this art which was you know frustration everybody was so encouraging and of course you’re incredible mother of two boys now and I know that you have a little dog and I know you have a husband and I know you have a everything’s got a little thing you’re turning around yeah but what I thought was beautiful also in addition to people of now buying your art and people commissioning your art like fertility clinics which every fertility clinic in the country should buy one from you. That’s the goal. Yeah, I’m going to help you here. That a portion of every one of those things you sell that you make is donated to Resolve, which is a national non-profit organization providing free and low-cost support and educational programs to meet the needs of women and men diagnosed with infertility. So that is just a full circle how it all turned out.
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Brilliant.
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I just want to ask a couple of questions about IVF needles because I don’t know and I just want to make sure everybody knows before we go any further that you can find Jamie’s work at GlitterEnthusiast.com. That’s the name of her company and she’s on Instagram and she’s on Facebook and when you see what she’s created you’re going to be like, okay, I have to get this gift as a gift for somebody. I have to tell a fertility clinic. I mean it’s just amazing. But those IVF needles, for somebody who’s never been through the process, how often do you have to give them to yourself? Do you fill them? What do you fill them with? What is that about?
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Explain. Yeah, so the needles I prefer, which I use a whole bunch of different needles now, but I prefer progesterone and oil needles, and that’s what you use when you’re doing a frozen transfer. So there’s fresh transfers where you have your eggs retrieved, they put them together with your partner’s sperm or a donated sperm and put the embryo back into you without it being frozen and preserved. To do that you have to do all these needles, building up to it to build up a whole bunch of things in your body. I won’t get into all the science, but…
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Okay, okay, it’s okay.
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You lose a lot of needles. And then when you’re doing a frozen transfer, you’re trying to… you’re trying to increase your lining and…
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Bottom line, you’ve got to give yourself these needles.
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Bottom line is it hurts and you have to do it a lot.
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How often is a lot?
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Like, well, I did needles, I did like twice a day for a couple weeks, but then I did, I had to take a blood thinning needle through my pregnancy, so until 24 hours before the boys were born, I gave myself an injection every day.
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I bow down to you. I can’t even look at a needle. I tell phlebotomists every time they’re drawing blood, I go, I don’t know who you are, but you have a higher calling. You have a higher calling. I could never even look. Anyway, the bright side of the challenging story is that you have this amazing world you’ve created, not only for yourself, but for people who appreciate art that’s come from inspiration, for those who like beautiful art. I just can’t believe your talent. It’s amazing. Again, Glitter Enthusiast is Jamie’s website. Jamie Kushner, Blitcher. Am I saying your name right?
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my leecher but you had it you had it right here it’s and and it’s been such a really cool thing and we we call art trophies of experience so I think that every piece of art on a wall should have a story and I’m not trying to create the
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0:09:29
people I’m so happy to share your story Jamie Kushner bleacher the LIC a G I put up everything up on the Debbie Nigro Facebook page. It’s over on my Instagram page at The Real Debbie Nigro. Go to GlitterEnthusiast.com, spread the word about this incredible woman and her company and maybe share the inspiration and the commiseration with any other women or men you know who are struggling with infertility. Thank you, Jamie. I wish we could hang out more, but I’ve got to go and you’ve got to go.
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Thank you, Debbie, so much.
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We’ll talk soon.
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All right. Be well. Be well. Much love to you. Stay tuned. I’m going to tell you about the fertility size of the population that are going through this next.
Transcribed with Cockatoo
