Inspiration

I was asked yesterday by Jen at Freckle on the Nose of Life’s Complexion about where I get the inspiration for my jewelry designs. As I was emailing her back, I realized that I should do a blog post about this. I figured other people might be interested in it too, and I’d love to hear what inspires everyone else.

I can also use this post to answer her in more detail, because there are many different ways I find inspiration.

Most of my pieces are completely unique. I recycle vintage jewelry and buttons to create new pieces. I get my materials from all over! Some have been donated, some I buy at thrift stores, and some were mine to begin with. I’ll start with this example…While at a thrift store in Calabash, I found a really cool pair of vintage clip on earrings. I just fell in love! They were beautiful, and I had to have them! This was near the beginning of my jewelry making and selling days. (See this early blog post for how I took over my parent’s den.) Now, we all know that clip on earrings are out. Almost everyone has pierced ears (besides my boyfriend’s mom and sister), but people who don’t still don’t really wear clip ons. I used one of the earrings as a pendant for a necklace, but it just wasn’t right. I knew the true called for this beautiful piece was as a ring.

 I had never made a ring before, so I went searching for ring bases. My basic inspiration was that I would want to wear that piece as a ring. I figure that if I like something, someone else will too. It must have been true because before I could even post the ring to Etsy, my friend Rachel bought it. I took the other earring off the necklace chain and made that one into a ring too. This beautiful purple floral ring is still for sale in my Etsy shop.

Sometimes, my inspiration comes from jewelry I see other people making, selling, or wearing. I’ve been seeing fabric rosettes and mum cabochons all over the place. I found the flower pieces for sale and got to making mum earrings and hair pins. Both are for sale in my shop.

Everyone has been seeing the fabric rosette trend. I had to have some for myself. I started looking online for tutorials and finally found a good one. I’ve just started making these, but I love them. I haven’t posted any for sale in my shop yet, but I can take special orders and create a listing for you. These are things that I’ve seen in stores that were just way too expensive to justify buying. I try to keep my prices down, because I’m on a college budget. When I price something, I think “Would I be willing to pay that?”.

Now to my buttons…I just love buttons. Vintage buttons were my first jewelry making material. I scrounged through local thrift shops to find unique charms. I can honestly say that I held on to a button from the time I started last summer until just recently. I was waiting for the PERFECT place to use it, because I just loved it. I ended up sewing that button into the center of a frayed fabric flower. It goes perfectly with the fabric. I really hope this flower pin finds a good home. I just love that button.

This post might get the award for my longest post ever! I’m just really passionate about my designs and my art. That’s why I get so excited when I make a sale. Then I know that someone else loves that Hand Made and Lovely piece just as much as I do. Thanks for sticking around. Let me know if there is a certain piece in my shop that you’d like to know the story behind.

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Happy Thursday!!