Wow, I can make jewelry!

So I'm making earrings, then since I'm also making embroidered pendant necklaces, I decide to try making pretty beaded necklaces, too. I got a jewelry book for my birthday of last year, and started getting inspired by putting my own twist on some of their designs

My style just kind of came though: What I didn't like in the sample pieces in those books, I improved it to make it mine. The process was fantastic, and I really enjoyed it; I still do!!

A few highlights of my most popular pieces: I have this *dangly* necklace design, which is composed of mostly jump rings with stones hanging down. I also have a great mix n' match bracelet design (which is basically a crazy charm bracelet that I absolutely love, being connected by funky wired hoops), and lastly, a cluster necklace design that uses primarily sperical beads of the same color scheme. I also have some wire wrapped seaglass necklaces, and I love shells (turquoise especially!)

The fashion of it is very exciting - I like beads for pieces that are chunky, shiny, and different. Anything to stand out. Always :)

Earrings, earrings earrings!!

I have to say that the most popular item I have now are my earrings. They are unique, one-of-a-kind designs that I make sure to set at a reasonable price. It's important to me that people be able to afford my pieces, especially in an economy like this.

How I got started with these was actually due to my negligence of my own jewelry. I know, bad. I'm always losing earrings, misplacing one and having to trash the other. So while shopping for perhaps my 8th replacement hoop earrings, it occured to me how picky I was in terms of my style. Basically, I know what I like and I know that I could make it.

Consequently, I had an internship at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA at this time, and right down the street is a Beadworks Shop that I happened to stumble into.

I. Was. So. Excited. There were beads of every single color, and I tended towards the natural stones and textured beads the most. From there, I started small, buying beads for one pair of earrings at a time on my lunch break like once a week. It was fun mixing and matching beads, colors, styles, textures, and I always created things that I would wear.

So for about a year now, I've had a mobile rack of earrings that I take to shows, all pairs priced at 10.00. I've noted what is popular, but I always like coming up with something different.

I've actually also been tossing around an idea for my etsy site: that being a "virtual earring rack", in which case I would photograph my earring rack full of approx. 30 earring pairs, then as they get sold I would update the photo. I'll let that cook for a while and may implement it later, so stay tuned!

How I Got Started - The SMFA Sidewalk Sale, 2008

Ah, the SMFA Sidewalk Sale of 2008.

As my first art sale, it was kind of a disaster. I sat at a table for two days, 10-5, and sold two things. Do you know what it's like to sell two things in 15 hours?

Yeah, not fun :(

I had put out some great bags that I embroidered from me & my mom's business - They're being featured in an associate's, Cindy Cheever-Nichols who owns Mermaids at Duxbury Bay Boutique. We've sold a bunch, and I'll be sure to get some images up ASAP.

So I was selling those, some prints from a color photo class, and lastly some images I created using pointillism. Pointillism is a technique involving the buildup of dots of ink to create depth and perspective. I took this great Film Noir class, and I got so inspired with the stark contrasts of lights in dark with the imagery of the movies, and I set up a few images to reflect this (one of my images, above) I got a ton of positive feedback, and so I priced them and put them out to sell.

And I continued to get a ton of positive feedback, but just no sales. And I could not lower the price because of the nature of the technique; the dots take a long time to build up. It sounds crazy to do, but it's actually quite a meditative process. I fell in love with it in high school, and I also picked it up again in tribute to my art teacher. Yeah, AWHS!

Anyway, back on track -

So as I was sitting there, watching everyone else making sales, my brain started concocting things. There was a diverse set of things being sold at this sale, by a great deal of talented people - like jewelry, and fun unique things that were different. So, I kind of started thinking how to make embroidery into jewelry.

Without revealing too much, that is how I came up with my signature product, the embroidered necklace!! They're really edgy, have a dinstinctive look, and I have a lot of flexibility in terms of what I can embroider on them. I recycled fabric from quilters, braided rope for the necklace, and sewed patches onto custom made-backs.

So there you are! I sold a great deal of them at this year's Sidewalk Sale, and plan to continue to :) My big selling categories are horoscope signs, the peace signs, and the "green" design. Check them out on my etsy site!