For fun I thought I would start with some fast facts about me! So here it goes:
- I’m from and live in Sweden; have you ever heard about the Swedish Dala Horse? Well, I live about 1,5 hours away from where they originated!
- I very very recently turned 32 (happy birthday to me!)
- I studied geology for 5 years and worked in a mine for nearly 2 years before I became…
- …a mother to a wild little boy who turned ONE this New Years Eve!
- I’m married to a red bearded and blond maned man with actual royal blood in his veins.
- I have an unhealthy relationship with volcanoes, minerals and gemstones.
- I started making jewellery in 2014.
So, lets dive into that last bullet point and to how I ended up becoming a jewellery maker.
Volcanoes made me do it!
I guess you could say that my journey into making jewellery all came from my deep love and fascination with volcanoes. I’ve always been intrigued by them, last year I found a volcano painting I made during my pre-teens, case in point. It was my fascination with volcanoes that led me to take an evening course about them, which ended up becoming 5 years worth of geology studies! It was during this time that my love and fascination for minerals and gemstones came to surface.
In 2014, when I made my own and my bridesmaids jewellery for my upcoming wedding I used nothing but real gemstones. I mean, the thought of using glass or acrylic beads didn’t even cross my mind. The years of studying geology were deeply rooted by then. And yes, me and my husband did have a geology themed wedding where we got married at an old mining site close to my hometown.
Creating with real gemstones made me fall in love with jewellery making and gems all over again.
In 2015 I wanted to expand on my skillset so I took my first silversmithing class. And I loved it! To make my very first ring from scratch was such an amazing feeling and I fell in love with the whole process! To create a piece of jewellery from a simple bit of silver thread were so much fun and so satisfying. I felt legit and I knew I wanted to evolve this skill as soon as I set foot in the silversmithing studio.
This year I will take another silversmithing course which will hopefully get me the courage to start soldering and make jewellery for real from my home studio!
Making a name for myself.
I started being serious about jewellery making and try and pursue it as a career in 2016 when I knew I would be out of a job in September of that year and also become a mother in January of 2017.
Before this I mostly made jewellery for myself and for friends and family for fun on my spare time. But in 2016 I made enough jewellery to take part in my first ever fair and I had so much fun! Since then I have attended 4 more shows and this year I hope to attend a few new ones as well.
I opened my Etsy shop September 1st, 2017 and got my first sale on the launch day!
I had hoped to open the shop way earlier that year but after the arrival of our son (who FYI happened to arrive 2 weeks early and thus became one of the last babies to arrive in 2016), my priorities changed and I procrastinated a lot. Mostly due to me being a perfectionist, but also because of negative thoughts that I wasn’t good enough, or creative enough or that people would see me as an imposter. The imposter syndrome is very real from time to time and it really stops me in my tracks.
Anyways, before opening up my shop I did a lot of thinking about what I wanted to make and sell. What I wanted to be known for. I really felt I wanted to make other types of jewellery besides birthstones which back then was what I mainly made. Currently you can find five different collections in my Etsy shop.
All my jewellery have that minimal, clean and simplistic look that I strive for, however I still haven’t really found what I want to be known for. I have a few ideas, but until I reveal them for the world to see, I got to improve on my silversmithing skills. You can’t rush these things.
Finding my creative voice.
One of my long time goals for my business is to find my creative voice, my own style, one that when people see it they instantly knows that that piece is made by me! This means that with time I will narrow down my jewellery assortment and focus my creativity on one style. But don’t worry, before any of this happens I will experiment a lot and evolve my metalsmithing skills. So you can expect to find a lot of new pieces in my Etsy shop this year as I experiment, learn and evolve as a maker!
I hope this was a fun and interesting read, I could have kept going on much longer but I didn’t want to bore you. So I will leave you with some excellent advice from the perspective of a volcano.
Until next time, have a blast!
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