Humble Beginnings: Original & Festive Collections
Like I mentioned in my first post, it took a couple of years after my initial idea to actually start making jewelry. When the pandemic began I was actually finishing up my Master’s program in Chicago. It was such a great experience and I made the most incredible friends while I was there. It was extremely sad to not be able to finish the program together or celebrate our graduation in person. Since we couldn’t end our time in the program together, I wanted to make my friends something special as a graduation gift. I decided on making some friendship earrings since I already had some materials that I had purchased years before.
This is where my jewelry-making began! I didn’t have the first idea on how to start so I consulted Youtube. I knew I wanted to make some nice dangle earrings with the pearls and clear crystals I had. I found this tutorial video by Howcast called “How to Make Beaded Dangle Earrings | Making Jewelry” and took it from there.
The video was easy to follow in my head, but it was HARD actually putting it to practice. I didn’t realize how shaky my hands were and I kept dropping all my materials because I wasn’t gripping any of the tools correctly. After struggling for a couple of hours, I was able to make my first pair! It was so bad, but I was proud that I was able to put something together. I ended up giving my first official pair (as seen in the first picture) to my mom and she swears it was good.
After that, I was able to make my friends their friendship earrings and figured out a way to make the earring packaging cute too. I made petal envelopes, placed the earrings inside, and wrapped them with twine. I still use the same type of packaging to this day because I think it adds a sweet, handmade touch to each order. The only thing that has evolved is some logo stickers and QR codes that I’ll talk about in a later post.
Just like that, I was an official earring maker! Since then I have made around 10 Original designs. All of my designs are original, but these weren’t inspired by anything (except by what I thought would be cute and compliment my outfits). I started incorporating different colored wire, beads, gemstones, and shapes. These were so much fun to make and allowed me to practice my techniques before tackling my inspired pieces.
I also added some “festive” styles to the mix. I figured it’d be nice to make earrings based on holidays and other celebratory occasions. My first style was made for Christmas 2020 (peppermint glass bead and pearls), and my second style came to me in a dream after seeing lots of engagements on my feed. I guess I associated these engagements with future bachelorette parties and I created this funny and slightly inappropriate style that would match the vibe. I personally think they are equal parts immature and tasteful.
I still plan to add more styles to both of these collections. My main focus will be my inspired pieces, but it’s fun to create things out of thin air just because I can. Or because I have a specific outfit in mind that won’t match with any of my available earrings! Either way, I’ll make sure to share those with you too.
