Patina Queen
PatinaQueen
My BIO ~
Hello and welcome to a snippet about my life and journey to becoming Patina Queen. As a young girl, I was incredibly fortunate to be blessed with a mother and grandmother, aka Memaw, who both had a passion for glue and glitter and passed it on to me with steadfast maternal devotion. For my family, every Sunday ran like clockwork starting with church, a wholesome southern lunch and finally CRAFTS! Church was my Sunday morning art class, an hour of warm-up doodling to prepare for my afternoon of crafting bliss. Most of the time I would pass the hour by drawing portraits of my preacher on collection envelopes and slipping them to him on my way out during the handshake...as if to tip him with my artistic genius for a service well done. He seemed to appreciate my creative efforts and was always a little disappointed on days I chose to play hangman with my brother vs. channeling Picasso. What? No drawing today? He was always a sweet man, not bothered at all that I rarely paid attention.
During lunch I would scarf down various mushy southern style puddings made with tomatoes, corn and always way too much sugar. For dessert we would eat pear halves filled with a dollop of mayo with a maraschino cherry on top. Each pear would lie on its own bed of lettuce. For years I thought this was something my grandmother made up. She was constantly creating and inventing things and dishes were no exception. Maybe she meant to use cool whip but grabbed the mayo instead? At the time she was like 200 yrs old to me and could have easily gotten the two confused. My brother and I would giggle and wonder why no one had the balls to tell her it was gross. Funny, when I grew up I learned that Memaw's crazy concoction IS a real dish called pear salad, and many southern folk quite enjoy it. Who knew? Regardless, she was an artist in her own right and the matriarch of our crafting circle so who was I to judge or suggest substitutions, food or otherwise. Plus, all I knew is once I ate the stuff, I was one step closer to glitter bliss!
After eating, I would wait with anticipation for everyone else to hurry up so we could clear the table and finally get down to business. My own lil' southern style craft mafia. We would découpage wooden frames, make candles, iron transfer vintage handkerchiefs or paint and melt shrinky dinks. Oh my goodness, you should have seen our collection of puffy paint! Gotta wait a bit for something to dry or bake? No biggie, there was always a friendly game of Go Fish or Old Maid to keep us occupied. I'm often taken off guard when browsing a toy store and one of those childhood games catches my eye. It never fails; I well up and cannot resist throwing down another couple of bucks for yet another pack. In those moments I feel like John Cusack from Serendipity....except Old Maid is not nearly as romantic. It's funny how each and every one of us has our own unique warm and fuzzy triggers, ways of chasing memories.
One afternoon the project of the day was Friendly Plastic. Oh sweet Friendly Plastic, where have you been all my life?!?! We created tons of colorful earrings, necklaces and brooches and I was in heaven! I could not stop. I made earrings day and night and eventually set up a little stand in Memaw's beauty shop selling my homemade bobbles to her customers. I was huge hit and was soon taking orders. I was only twelve and little did I know, the seed to my life as a jewelry designer and business owner had been planted. My mother and grandmother were both hair stylists and shop owners. They are both gone now, but their entrepreneurial spirit and love of crafts lives on in me and I couldn't be more grateful for the gifts they shared. Our moments together were guaranteed to be filled with laughter, love and creativity and I could not think of anywhere else I wanted to be. I loved those Sunday afternoons.
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(¸.•´ (¸.•´♥ Do you blog? ♥
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♥ Thanks to Lorelei for adding my Fancy White Bezel to her treasury featuring Bezels for the Art Bead Scene blog feature she creates on Fridays called Friday Finds. 5/21/10
Treasury: http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4bf660c758248eef33d2b730/friday-finds-with-lorelei-bezels
♥ Thanks to Kathy at Pangaea Designs for sharing some of her fav PQ goodies with her readers: http://www.pangaeadesigns.net/2009/09/swarovski-crystal-teardrop-pendants_1969.html
♥ Thanks to katecojewelry for adding my teal starfish to her August 12, 2009 inspired finds: AT THE BEACH. http://the-purple-artichoke.blogspot.com/
♥ Thanks so much to Genevieve Gail for including my hand antiqued starfish to her blog's July Mood Board. Check it out, http://genevievegail.blogspot.com/2009/07/july-mood-board.html
♥ Thank you to The Heart Chronicles for featuring my Aged White Repousse Butterfly. Check it out: http://redheartcult.blogspot.com/2009/03/buried-treasure-honey-bee-adornments.html
♥ NEWS!!!! Yet again, I am deeply touched by the kind words of one of my fellow Etsians, Lynn Davis. She so graciously raves about many of my charms and findings in her Nov. 9th posting. What a sweetie pie :) Check it out:
http://z-llyynn.blogspot.com/
♥ Spanish Lullabies Jewelry, http://www.spanishlullabiesjewelry.blogspot.com/ writes: "I have gravitated to vintage-looking most anything for as long as I can remember. So when I found the beautiful patina available at Vintaj, I was drawn to it right away. However, I have been very interested in the different patinas available at www.patinaqueen.etsy.com too. She does some amazing things with solid brass!"
♥ greencricketstudios.blogspot.com to see a beautiful necklace featuring my Dreamy Seahorse.
♥ NEWS!!! Yet again, I am deeply touched by the kind words of one of my fellow Etsians, Studio A La Mode. She was kind enough to profile me in her blog. Check it out:
http://www.jkbrownstudioalamode.blogspot.com/
♥ NEWS...Lorelei of Designs by Lorelei here on Etsy was kind enough to interview me for her blog. Check it out @ http://lorelei1141.blogspot.com/2008/04/tues-april-8-etsy-feature-patina-queen.html
♥ Thanks a bunch to Lana for adding Patina Queen to her "Fantastic Favs." Check out her blog, http://somethinguniquebylana.blogspot.com/
♥ Creative Jewelry Magazine 2009 issue featured Patina Queen in a piece on successful Etsy sellers, don't miss it!
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♥ Three episodes of DOLLHOUSE (The Public Eye, The Left Hand and Getting Closer) featured one of my necklaces, "lil' coo-coo" worn by their guest star, Summer Glau. It was a PERFECT match for her character, Bennett Halverson, who was actually a LOT coo-coo, HA!
♥ The Friday, 10/2 episode of DOLLHOUSE on Fox featured a pair of my earrings from my jewelry line.
♥ The Friday, 5/1 episode of DOLLHOUSE on Fox featured one of my necklaces, "Lovebird."
♥ 2018 - Sold a rather large collection of earrings to the costume designers for the TV show, Good Behavior filmed here in Wilmington, NC. I have also been a reoccurring featured extra on the show. Look for me as the hostess and of course feel free to help me keep an eye out for fabulous earrings in upcoming episodes! :D
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