Hopeless Romantic Starts Making Jewelry and Never Stops
It all started out with my mom. She sewed almost all my clothes in elementary school and was always fiddling around with fabric and her machine. Scraps laying here and there, the whir of the needle, and the late night lights burning as she put the finishing touches on a dress...
One of my first "big" projects was making a quilt when I was in elementary school. Now when I say "quilt" I mean "doll quilt"! I told her I wanted to make the squares 1 inch big. This was before I actually knew how to measure, I thought 1 inch was the length of my hand... I'm much smarter now, I promise!
From sewing I discovered the shiny world of seed beads and silver charms. There was no stopping me then! I made necklaces and bracelets and set up a little display at my parent's garage sale and tried to sell my wares to people who came through. I didn't sell much but it was so exciting to watch people pick up and touch the stuff I made and tell me it was pretty.
After attempting to sell my jewelry at garage sales and occasionally at my grandma's craft fair tables I got tired of adding things to my growing pile of handmade jewelry. I had this funny habit of making things but not wearing it in case someone else wanted it. For about three or four years at the end of high school and beginning of university I took a break from beading. I no longer could get away with looking cute and asking people to buy my stretchy bracelet but I had no where else to go forward with my craft.
Then someone told me about Etsy.
My first visit to the site astounded me. All these people are creative like me and actually sell stuff here? So. Cool.
Andddddd basically from that point until now has been the best and most rewarding creative experience of my life! It did take me a few months to gather the courage to actually set up a shop on Etsy, because let's be honest, showing your creative output to millions of strangers when, for the last 21 years your audience has been your immediate family, is a little terrifying.
An important part for me of setting up my shop was choosing a name. I'd attempted to come up with a title for my stuff when I was younger but nothing stuck, or it sounded weird to me. "Classically Romantic" eventually floated into my head and it fit perfectly. I'm a hopeless romantic, I love the arts and humanities, and I love classic things. My shop is an extension of my personality in every sense. I've often said you can vaguely track my mood through the items I list.
I don't have any official studio, workspace, or craft room yet, but I hope to one day have that! I always create at night and photograph in the day. I'm 100% a night owl and love staying up late watching a movie and making necklaces, earrings, bracelets and whatever else my heart is interested in.
So now I'm here, writing this story about my shop, what I do, and how things got started. I hope that you have enjoyed reading it and I hope that this is not the end, that there is still much more to be added...
