When your work hits the red carpet, you can’t complain.

That’s why Frank Hannigan and wife, Beth Adams haven’t moved their Atelier showroom from its prime Carillon Point location since it opened 20 years ago.

Recently, a patron – the wife of a Twentieth Century Fox studio executive – stopped in and saw the gold chain Beth was wearing around her neck. The woman told the couple she wanted the chain in white gold, and they are designing four other pieces of jewelry for her as well.

“She said she’s going to wear it for the Oscars because she’s tired of showing for those large companies,” Frank said, noting the woman was staying at the nearby Woodmark Hotel. “So that’s the surprise of the hotel – you never know what’s going to happen.”

The relationship with the Woodmark has been the biggest advantage for the couple, who both design jewelry, including pendants, earrings, diamond jewelry, bracelets, colored stone rings and wedding rings. They also have displays at Saks Fifth Avenue in Palm Desert, Calif.

Their store – Hannigan Adams – was the first store in Carillon Point to open 20 years ago as work on the Woodmark was just wrapping up.

Beth remembers Carillon Point’s beginnings well.

“It snowed and they had a labor strike and then of course all the chains coming out of the harbor here for the boats at the Marina,” she said. “It was one thing after the next and so they (the hotel) were delayed.”

When Carillon Point first opened, there were 16 stores, Frank recalled. The Bellevue Chamber of Commerce came out for the grand opening event and a reggae band played.

“It was a big deal,” he said. “This was the only gig in town that was like this.”

Despite the few retail stores that still exist, the area has become “more tech-centric,” Frank said.

That is why the hotel is so important.

But the longtime Kirkland residents also like that Carillon Point is “not run like a mall,” Frank said. “They don’t pressure you to change, to renovate, like they would at Bellevue Square.”

In fact, the property owners – the Skinner family – are store patrons. Beth designed Katherine Skinner’s wedding ring.

In the store’s “laissez-faire” atmosphere, Beth and Frank get to accomplish what they do best – create.

A trained goldsmith and gemstone setter, Frank both designs and fabricates jewelry. He specializes in men’s jewelry.

“We just think a little bit differently,” said Beth, former director for the Kirkland Arts Center who has also taught art classes there.

An active artist and jewelry designer, her abstract paintings have been exhibited in numerous shows and galleries in the US. Her art pieces are also on display at her store, including her Lake Washington series featuring hues of blue and turquoise.

Beth enjoys designing rings with wide bands, both for artistic and historical reasons.

“Feel this,” she said as she handed the Reporter a heavy ring with a wide band on a recent afternoon. She spends some time speaking about the Minoans who made pot rings in the Fifth Century to use as dowries. “This was a woman’s passage. That’s how a woman could get out of places.”

The couple makes about 90 percent of all their jewelry in a small workroom in the back of the showroom. Frank holds up a small bar of gold between his finger and thumb, showing how it looks before a machine flattens it. He points to his workbench, cluttered with a couple dozen unfinished gold rings and old tools.

“This is really where it starts,” Frank says of the workroom.

“There’s hand labor in there that you can’t buy,” Beth added.

Frank pulls out some of his jewelry still in the works: a gold horseshoe necklace for an equestrian in Denver, a gold ring depicting two playing cards for an online poker player, and a gold bracelet and ring he designed for a local man who frequents the shop.

“It’s kind of a hodge-podge of different designs that we do,” Frank said, noting he designs jewelry in white, platinum, yellow gold and silver too.

Prices range from $45 for a pearl and sterling silver bracelets, up to $22,000 for a two-carat, asscher cut diamond ring.

When people come in to look for a wedding ring or other piece of jewelry, Beth asks them what they are comfortable with and how much they want to spend.

“We can take that ring and miniaturize it and say if a young couple comes in and wants to spend $4,000 or $5,000, we can make that ring for that amount, whatever your budget is,” Beth noted.

When the couple was first married about 41 years ago, Beth said they were more competitive.

“People would say, ‘oh, I guess he does everything and you just do the sales and the books and I’d go, ‘look out,'” she laughed.

She said it can be difficult working with your spouse, as some people just “assume that your just kind of an adjunct, whereas I had to fight to develop my own line and style.”

That’s one reason why she goes by her maiden name, Adams, at work.

And there are some people who like her style, and others who like Frank’s.

Many male patrons are comfortable asking Frank for help. He is also good at getting “a plumber or a very wealthy man who doesn’t want to wear foo foo and he can design and get them so that they’re comfortable and they feel good about it,” Beth added.

A lot of Beth’s work tends to be more artistic or sculptural, often times attracting those with an art background.

And though Beth asked her husband if he would sell pieces at Saks Fifth Avenue with her, he shook his head.

“I’ve got plenty of stuff to do around here,” Frank said.

But don’t let his modesty fool you. He has also tried his creative hand at art work, too.

“That’s ‘Loose as a Goose,’” he laughs, pointing to a creature-type piece of ceramic art for sale in their studio.

Hannigan Adams is located at 1260 Carillon Point in Kirkland. For information, visit www.HanniganAdams.com or call 425-889-9450.