Kelsey Gosselin is your classic individualist.

Take her fashion sense, for instance. Unlike a lot of high schoolers, she doesn’t have any desire to wear what everyone else is wearing. While all of her classmates are buying their clothes from American Eagle (“They all shop there. And everyone looks the same,” she said), she’s hitting vintage stores in New York City or scouring the Internet for European labels.

This way of thinking also extends to her hobbies, particularly her first love — designing handcrafted tiffany jewelry.

“It’s boring to make the same thing over and over,” Kelsey said.

Clearly, this young artisan is on to something. Just 15, the Old Forge resident is already the proprietor of her own business, Kelsey’s Creations.

On Friday, Kelsey unveiled more than 20 of those creations at Outrageous, 515 Center St., during the monthly First Friday artwalk in downtown Scranton.

Her jewelry will remain on display at the boutique throughout December.

An old hand

Kelsey, a sophomore at Wyoming Seminary, is already an old hand in the money clips jewelry business, having made her first bracelet around the age of 10. Today, she’s got hundreds of pieces of inventory. In addition to bracelets, she makes earrings (for the holidays, she does snowmen and Santa), watches and, most extensively, necklaces made of multicolored beads, pearls, hand-blown glass and gem stones — jade, quartz, marble, amazonite, lava rocks and turquoise are just a few of her favorites — she purchases from Internet wholesalers.

Some have wooden pendants. Others contrast the shiny with the dull (i.e. jade combined with quartz). One of her favorites features a distinctive-looking sea shell she found in Seaside Heights, N.J.

Lately, she’s been making extensive use of chain links and wrapping the stones with wire. And her bracelets now include lots of Swarovski crystal.

“They really just catch the light right. They’re really pretty,” Kelsey said.

And, of course, no two pieces are ever the same.

“She says, ‘I don’t want anything you can buy in the store,’” Mrs. Gosselin said. “The more unique, the more she likes them.”

“I think that pendants jewelry gives people that individuality. It separates them from eveyone else,” said Kelsey, who charges between $15 and $32 for her merchandise.

Given her heavy course load at Sem, Kelsey does the majority of her work on weekends. She doesn’t have any real set-in-stone regimen. Basically, she sits down on the floor of her cluttered workroom, boxes upon boxes of beads surrounding her, quickly picks out a few combinations she thinks would work well together, and gets busy. Most of the time, it takes her no longer than 45 minutes to finish a piece.

“It just kind of happens,” Kelsey said.

“It’s like an innate gift,” Mrs. Gosselin said. “A gift from God, that’s how we phrase it. It’s a talent.”

Sold bracelets

That talent first presented itself about five years ago, when Kelsey’s cousin gave her a box of beads. With them, she made little stretch bracelets that she’d sell to friends at school.

At first, she was buying most of her beads from a local craft store. Then, during her first trip to New York City, she, her mom and her aunt spent the majority of their time going “from bead store to bead store to bead store.” As she progressed into necklaces, she discovered online jewelry supply wholesalers like Fire Mountain.

Eventually, Kelsey started selling her items to family friends (“One of my best friends, she won’t buy any other jewelry than Kelsey’s,” Mrs. Gosselin said.) and at places like Sugerman’s and Abington Heights High School. Before long, she was making enough money to pay her way for a family trip to Hawaii.

Today, she and Mrs. Gosselin regularly take the jewelry to craft shows, local colleges and special functions like the annual Scranton Jazz Festival. Last Thursday, Mrs. Gosselin was to staff a table at the University of Scranton’s holiday craft fair in the campus’ Patrick and Margaret DeNaples Center. On Wednesday, she’ll be at Marywood University’s Nazareth Hall.

The majority of Kelsey’s earnings go into her college fund. After graduating from Sem, where she’s on the dean’s list and is a member of the swimming and softball teams, chorale (she’s an avid singer) and student activities committee, the science-loving, eco-conscious teen plans to study oceanography, possibly at the University of Hawaii.

“I want to go to college for something I can get a real job in,” Kelsey said.

Practical as she is, Kelsey admits to harboring dreams of one day becoming a big-time fashion and jewelry designer, “like Michael Kors or Vera Wang.”

“I kind of know what’s going to come into style before it does,” said Kelsey, who next summer might attend a special program at New York City’s Fashion Institute of Technology.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Gosselin and her husband, Robert, have discussed the possibility of opening a shop where they can sell Kelsey’s earrings jewelry, but haven’t yet figured out a way to make it amenable to their respective schedules.

The fact that they’re considering it at all says a lot about what they think of their daughter’s talent and commitment. As Mrs. Gosselin put it, “this is her passion.”

Contact the writer: jmcauliffe@timesshamrock.comMeet Kelsey Gosselin

Age: 15

Residence: Old Forge

Family: Parents, Sharon and Robert Gosselin; brother, Matthew; paternal grandmother, Lucy Gosselin

Education: Sophomore at Wyoming Seminary, where she’s on the dean’s list and a member of the softball and swimming teams, chorale and student activities committee.

Extracurricular activity: A jewelry artisan, Kelsey has her own business, Kelsey’s Creations, through which she sells her own line of handcrafted jewelry, including necklaces, bracelets, earrings and watches. She is currently the featured artist for December at Outrageous, 515 Center St., where more than 20 of her pieces will be on display through the end of the month. In addition, on Dec. 10, Ms. Gosselin will be at Marywood University’s Nazareth Hall from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. displaying her jewelry as part of a holiday craft fair.