Shop Story
ME:
The great psychologist and personality theorist C.G. Jung posited that people who let their imaginations madly swoop and gallop where they will during daylight hours tend to have uninteresting dreams, as their minds have no need of release from the mundane to which we too often ploddingly tether ourselves.
I have very boring dreams.
The closeup above of my favorite bookshelf partly tells you why: fairy tales, Fitzgerald, Arabian Nights, Tolkien, Tolstoy, dolls, carousels, Sherlock Holmes, Aristophanes, oh and did I mention books? I was always the kid staring off into space in school; as what was going on inside my head, the Willy Wonka land I was traversing or fairies I was dancing with being far more interesting than whatever the teacher was droning on about. This shop is partly a little peek inside my head.
It began by trying to convert my own earrings to clips because I love big, heavy earrings but don't want to end up with saggy draggy earlobes, and was tired of poor-quality metals giving me puffy red irritated earlobes. A small, project, I thought. Ha! It turns out that the same places to get clips and tools are the same places to get BEADS. Glass beads, crystals, lampwork, metal, gemstones, acrylic, everything. I had to have it all! Learning as I went, the more I knew how to do the more I could make, and it was not too long before I had far more than I could ever wear. So I went from being an etsy buyer to a seller too. What an excellent excuse to buy more beads!
Fortunately I wasn't starting entirely from scratch. I grew up around art of all kinds because my mom is an artist, but my grandfather was the jewelrymaker. He made his own silver and turquoise jewelry as well as marketed jewelry from the Navajo in New Mexico. He would go to Santa Fe to literally trade with the Indians - how fun! I loved going with him to help sell at jewelry shows and when he died he left me all his jewelry making supplies. I knew one day I would finally put them to good use, and I would just keep it all waiting in the wings until then.
I love everything girly, whimsical, sparkly, floral and pink but depending on how I feel I also love smooth streamlined modern shapes, ethnic jewelry exploding with texture and color, or the organic, simple look of raw gemstones and oxidized silver, so I think there will always be something for everyone. I am learning and practicing new techniques every day to gain ability to actually produce what is inside of my head and soon will conquer the jewelry torch so I can work the precious metals as well. There is so much more to come and I look forward to sharing it all with you.
MY MOM:
I said my mom is an artist, and boy is she. But that doesn't even begin to cover it. Oil painting is her first love, and our home is filled with beautiful portraits and landscapes. When people come over for the first time, it is always such fun to sweep my arm and say, "see all these paintings? My mom did all of them." Then I continue to show off all the rest - the draperies, painted furniture & cabinets, sculptures, reupholstered chairs, duvets & dust ruffles, the carousel horse, and the wooden stairs she laid herself with the painted insets indiscernible from burlwood with the naked eye. She has given art lessons in multiple mediums and also taught courses on art psychology. Creating beauty is my mom's passion and she pushes those around her (in this case, me) to expand their own creativity too often left dormant. So you can see why I wanted her on my team! As you wander through our world, you will see items that are not "just" pretty jewelry but true pieces of wearable art. You can be sure that's her.
US:
We handmake all our jewelry for you to have something wonderful. We hand paint our adorable gift boxes. We drill, solder, twist, sculpt, file, string, paint, photograph, and burnish for you. We hand cushion all our bobby pins. We continue striving towards fully realizing our vision and this we want to share.
Although I cannot claim to have inherited my mom's artistic talent, I do share her love for prettifying the world around me. With this shop we hope to prettify your world too.
