Picture courtesy of http://carolinaclover.com/
Wrap around your wrist this Pink Flower Cuff Bracelet. A fabric design enclosed in a gray ribbon embellished with a Rhinestone studded flower medallion in sparkly pink. An ideal match for a jeans and tee or garb it with your night out dress.
Feel like a star in this original design of Carolina Clover, the Tuxedo Rhinestone Cuff Bracelet. This Tuxedo cuff is roofed in black satin fabric with a silver and rhinestone cobachon / medallion / concho in the shape of a star!
Now, lets us turn our interest to our featured artist for an interview
Jane: Tell us about yourself, your location, your job and your goals
Dawn Crowder: I'm a jewelry designer and retailer of personalized gifts. I personally design hand stamped charms, beaded earrings, and blingy cuff bracelets. I sell most of my items on my web site, and I am currently opening my first retail gallery showcase at the Cotton Company in Historic Downtown Wake Forest, NC.
Jane: How did you start doing jewelry (or beadmaking) as a business?
Dawn Crowder:I started buying unusual jewelry during my domestic travels as sort of a souvenir of my travel, my friends took notice of my treasures so I began reselling and designing my own pieces from beads and other materials found during my travels. Realizing I had an "eye" for the unusual, I took up the very hobby I enjoy doing both in my workshop and in my travels.
Jane: Every artist has a personal "creative process", can you explain yours?
Dawn Crowder:My creative process is not something I can sit down and just "do". Day to day life of raising children creates a creative "fog" for me, while very rewarding and fulfilling in the Mommy role, my creative ideas come to me when I'm traveling, shopping boutiques, or just mulching the flower beds! And when those creative vibes start firing, I have to sketch it out so I don't loose sight of the design and when I get an energizing moment to devote to the design, I start hammering it out in my workshop.
Jane: When people start doing jewelry, they tend to try a lot of different things before settling down to something that resonates with them, tell us how has your jewelry work changed since you began?
Dawn Crowder: I started out beading earrings, then moved to hand stamping, and now I seem to be focusing on my cuff bracelets and now I want to move into matching earrings for my cuff bracelets, so I seem to have come full circle, loving all of it just shifting my focus here and there.
Jane: Can you share with us a some jewelry making or design tips?
Dawn Crowder:I'm a perfectionist which is both a great quality and a disturbing quality in artistry! The first tip I can share is that I wrap my jeweler's tools in blue painters tape to keep from marking and scratching my silver wire work and my hand stamped charms. I also had to try like a billion different fabric, embellishment, and jewel glues and adhesives until I got the ones that work for me and give me the look, the quality, and the strength I needed. Not really a tip, I guess, but I guess the lesson is, keep looking until you find the right materials that express your design.
To view more of Dawn Crowder's jewelry design,please check out these sites:
Shop: http://www.carolinaclover.com/
Blog: http://carolinaclover.blogspot.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/CarolinaClover
Etsy: http://carolinaclover.etsy.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Wake-Forest-NC/Carolina-Clover/158493306344
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