Wednesday, June 20, 2012

BSBP: Why I Became a Jewelry Designer

Lori Anderson, the lovely lady behind the Bead Soup Blog Party, emailed us recently with an interesting idea: Tell why I became a jewelry designer. I scratched my head... Have I already told you how I decided to become a jewelry designer? I'm pretty sure I haven't... because, really, I kind of stumbled onto it accidentally.

I was working at Borders when I started designing jewelry. Right around the time I had to drop out of LCAD, I felt like I couldn't do any art. I had failed to complete art school because I was lacking funds and therefore, I had failed as an artist. I drifted around quite a bit. Threw myself into working at Borders... Oh, I still sketched, but I couldn't complete a real "piece."

Enter Beadwork magazine. I was putting magazines away and this one just caught my eye. Gorgeous designs in beautiful colors. My brain went "OH! It's just thread and beads! I can do that."

From a 2010 blog post. I couldn't make the seed beads hold the rivoli in place.
Epic. Fail.

I can't tell you how many incomplete projects I STILL have sitting in a plastic box from 2009. Oh, they started out pretty enough but maybe I couldn't find exactly the right size seed bead and then it threw the whole project out of whack. Or the tension was wrong. Or the needle(s) broke. Whatever the reason, I just couldn't do bead weaving.

But. Then.

I found... wire.

My first piece published in Jewelry Affaire

And I never looked back. I think my love for seed beads stems from the fact that I so desperately wanted to be a beadweaver. I tried so hard but just couldn't do it. So I wrap them up instead. And they come in so many beautiful colors and sizes! I love that they add such detail to pieces... they're tiny gems!

I've added leather and cord to my list of tools I love and now I'm learning to play with metal. It's such an awesome learning process and I don't think I'll ever stop growing, learning, making mistakes... HAVING FUN!

Jewelry gives me an opportunity to express myself. To add some beauty to our world. And I find myself loving it like I never thought I would. I can actually FINISH pieces, which I used to struggle with when I was just drawing and painting. I even finish paintings now...

Something about making pretty things just makes me happy. And that's ultimately why I do what I do. To bring smiles and happiness to my life and to the lives of those who like my jewelry.

So why did you become a jewelry designer?

3 comments:

  1. Lovely story!

    I wouldn't call myself a jewelry designer yet - I still think of myself as a dabbler even though I've been at it for 5 years. Most of my stuff is crap!

    Anyway, in 2007 my Mom called me and said "We should take a beading class!" I replied, "yeah, whatever, okay, sure."

    Two weeks later I call Mom and say, "Hey, that bead shop is offering Bead Stringing 2! Wanna go?" and Mom replied, "Sure."

    A month after that I called Mom and said, "GUESS WHAT?? Bead Stringing 3 is in 2 weeks! C'mon! Let's go! Wanna go??" And Mom replied, "yeah, whatever, okay, sure."

    Five years later have drawers and drawers of beads and wire, and Mom has me fix her broken jewelry. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I like your story. =) Thanks for sharing. I haven't answered Lori's question yet, and I definitely need to.
    I love reading about inspirations.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Did you know that you can make cash by locking premium sections of your blog or website?
    Simply join AdscendMedia and use their Content Locking widget.

    ReplyDelete