Wednesday, March 11, 2015

JAC March Jewelry Artist of the Month

As an active member of the Jewelry Artisans Community, an online forum that encourages, supports and shares information with artisans who make hand crafted jewelry, I am surrounded by amazing jewelry artists.  The scope of their work includes metalsmithing, wire wrapping, chainmaille, sculpting with polymer clay, working with itty bitty seed beads and beyond.  They are an extremely talented group of people and it is an honor to be associated with them.  It is because of their talent that I have been inspired to share their work by featuring one of them each month on this blog.

The first jewelry artist to be featured in this new series is Carina of Violetmoon's Corner.

I asked Carina several questions and this is what she had to say:

What type of training/education have you had in making and designing jewelry?


I have never taken any classes. I was inspired and encouraged to try what I'm doing now by the work of other artists. In my country there have been little to no workshops or classes. Everything I wanted to learn I had to collect from the Internet. So far this has been fine; I design my jewelry trying to follow my friends' and other artists' advice, and mostly I succeed with the first tries. If not, I keep going until I am successful. Now I learn everything from the internet, mainly youtube tutorials or I learned from watching a design and trying to make it myself. 

What are your favorite jewelry making techniques?

I change my preferences. Today I like stringing, tomorrow I might start making some beaded beads or beadweaving,  I also tried looming and polymer clay.  But I always return to chainmaille and wire wrapping.



Is there a technique that you want to learn?


O, there are so many  

…. I would like to learn making glass beads, but my boyfriend won't allow it, he is afraid I will burn down the house.
…. I also would love to learn silversmithing
…. Cold soldering, again my boyfriend is afraid I will burn down the house.  


Do you do any other types of crafts or art?


I made 3D cards, pergamano greeting cards, and embroidery on greeting cards and beading on greeting cards in the past, but at the moment I still like to play with beads, wire and jump rings.


Who or what inspires you?


I have no idea what it is that inspires me, mostly images of things I saw in the past that come back in my mind. I think the most I get inspired by the work and ideas of others, but I change the design so they are completely different at the end. Sometimes I see something in a store (even in a hardware store) or I find something during cleanup that makes me think: "Yes, I could use that for my design." This is what happened some time ago, when I found a box with tap rubbers, which are now included in my chainmaille necklace and earrings. later I found out that I could buy the rubber rings  in different sizes and colors at The Ring Lord



Do you have any favorite jewelry designers?


In December 2004, I became a member of the B&B forum, my first beaders' community and I was amazed by the work of many others. My heroes at that time were MEW (Middle Earth Wire), Totemic (John Wik) and Gwen Fisher. Later I was  active on the Starving Artists and Jewelry Artists websites, where I have met some more my favorite artists, among them are: Zoya Gutina, Jacksmom, Kvorrie, RubyBee, etc. Of course you could also find me on a few Dutch forums where I've also got a few favorites: Blackcrow, Miranda, Ineke, Armande, to count just a few.

Now a days I’m only active on JAC and on some facebook groups. Of course all the members of JAC are my favorites.  

What do you like to do besides making jewelry?

The 2 things that I like best besides making jewelry are watching tv-shows and collecting and listening to music

Do you sell your jewelry? If yes, where?

I try to; this year I opened 3 online shops, besides my website www.violetmoon.nl, to get more traffic.

I started with a Dutch board "Violetmoon's Corner @ Yealie"”,  I placed a few items on "Violetmoon's Corner @ etsy" and I’m trying "Violetmoon's Corner @ DaWanda".

What are your goals for your business/jewelry making?

I don’t think you can call it a business when you have difficulties letting go of 
the things you created.  

I love beading and mostly it’s a hobby for me, but I am trying to sell a few of the items I made in the past. 



Do you donate any profit to charity? Which one? Why is that important to you?

Not really, but I did donate a few items in the past for a local handicapped gym club, as prices for a tombola they had.

Is there anything else you would like to tell us about yourself or your jewelry?

I live in a small village in the Venlo region, in the south of the Netherlands, and have been making jewelry for a long time. When I was 14 years old she began to make jewelry, and have since ventured into many materials and techniques. Some of the techniques that I have used are wire wrapping, chainmaille, beadweaving, stringing, wire crochet, netting, and polymer clay as well as many others. 

I don’t know whether I have a style,  I just make what comes to my head.  
I don’t pay attention to the trends, I make what I like and I like to challenge myself. Because of that I make different types of jewelry with different techniques but most of all I like Romantic Goth and Victorian jewelry, chain maille and wire wrapped pieces.


Thank you so much for taking the time to respond to my questions, Carina.  It has been very enjoyable to learn more about your process and to get to know you better. 

4 comments: