Over the years I have watched a lot of YouTube videos of jewelry designers sharing their creativity. I have often thought this might be something fun to try, but even the thought of a Facebook live makes me feel nervous. As I have said before, I am terrible at improv and have a feeling the foot in mouth syndrome might reappear. So, for now, this is my behind the scenes of my creative process including a peek at my desk.

Usually when I am making jewelry my desk is very messy. I have a bad habit of starting a jewelry piece and getting distracted. I will abandon the first piece and begin another. There are times when I will have five or six projects in some stage of production. There are usually a couple of ideas floating in my mind some of which are still waiting to be created. Then sometimes, a piece will make itself. When there are beads and findings all over my desk, I will stare at something for awhile and put it together and enjoy the way the beads found each other.

I also have pieces that I have taken apart and put together several times. I have a necklace currently on my website that has been re-done three times, and if I am honest, I really want to re-do it again. I have had other pieces, that I created and didn’t like at all. When I took the piece apart and made something a little different, I liked it so much more and it became much more popular. (See the necklace below!) It’s always been so interesting to me to see what people like from my designs.

I think my biggest source of inspiration is vintage jewelry. I have done the most research into the Victorian and Edwardian Eras of jewelry, and have really tried to carry these design ideas into a lot of my pieces. The Victorian Era really had a lot of different styles of jewelry that are really interesting and inspire me. A little secret, I would make everything out of pearls and cameos, but I know those things aren’t really for everyone.

I also tend to get carried away with the sparkle. I have to restrain myself from making entire pieces with Swarovski beads. There are so many kinds and colors, and I really enjoy working with them a lot. They are just so fun to look at with their shimmer. I have one larger crystal I bought to make a sun catcher out of, but ended up keeping it. I enjoy holding it and looking at it sparkle when I am looking for inspiration.

It was this year that I realized I needed to try something new, which is when I started working on the Minimalist line. At first I really struggled with the simple beauty of minimalism. I would put a bunch of components out on my desk and just stare at them. I had this really cute birdcage focal that I loved, but didn’t know what to do with it. I made a lariat necklace with the birdcage and a little bird, and that was the piece that really helped me make all the others in the collection. After I come up with something like that, I will do a happy dance around the house. My kids already know what to expect, but it’s good there is no one around to witness the dancing with jewelry!

I have to say, I really do love a challenge. The challenge was how the Character Collection was born, seeing something beautiful on a TV show or movie and figuring out how to recreated it. The love of a challenge is also probably why I have so many eclectic collections, and I expect that this will continue, especially knowing how distracted I get during creativity periods.

I look forward to sharing my new ideas with you! (Of course, I have two I am thinking about right now.) Check back often to see what’s happening next and , as always, thanks for reading!