She is one artist who can turn sea life, trees and flowers into jewelries! Here is a collection of her designs:
Seaweed pendant with 3 freshwater pearls:
Tree Fruit Pendant:
The inspiration to this pendant came from the fruit of the Brachychiton populneus tree
The metal bracelet is end of the year project of her metal smiting course, the subject was
love and idea was to make a corset like the girls get from their prom date. According to Shirley,it was a tricky piece to make. The original idea was different but in practice it didn’t really work. Together with her teacher she had to think of a different approach to make it work.
She has made a prototype from polymer clay.
Amaze with her designs? Read on to get to know her better here:
Tell us yourself!
My name is Shirley van der Veldt. For the last two years I am living in Israel, my home country, after 8 years in the Netherlands. I am a web designer.
How did you start doing jewelry (or beadmaking) as a business?
After giving birth to Mya my oldest child, I decided not to go back to the office life and wanted to
spend as much time as I can with my kids. This is why I started making jewelry and doing some
freelance web designing. I like to imagine myself as a studio owner with 6 other employees
but for now my goal is to make a living from making art and the trick is to find the balance
between marketing your pieces and still have the time to make it, I am still looking for this
balance. Lately I find myself spending much more time on the web than actually producing..
Last year I started taking metal smiting lessons which turned to be my second big passion
(after polymer clay) and now I am trying to combine the two in my work, though I find working
with metal at home a bit more challenging. I am a bit scared to use the torch in the house (my
working space is in the corner of our dinning area).
Every artist has a personal "creative process", can you explain yours?
Finding time to create is a big challenge for me it is kind of joggling between the kids,
maintaining the house and working but what can I say my house is not always shiny and tidy as
I would like it to be if I want to keep on working. I collect every photo that I like on the web and
from magazines so I have a huge picture collection for inspiration. Usually I start with a sketch
I have a thick sketch book and I try to put my ideas first on paper, it takes a while before I dare
to realize the idea. I need to run it in my head for a few days, but then I start to work. Most of the time the end result turns out completely different then the original idea.
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?
I was introduced to Fimo when I was 6. Since then I tried a lot of different mediums and in the
end I came back to the clay that’s where I feel home. It took me a while to get my own style,
for many years I have been busy learning a lot of different techniques. The last two years
were tough years in my personal life but those were also the years when I experienced a
breakthrough and I finally got loose creative wise and started to express myself.
It’s true what they say that art comes from suffering.
If you teach, where will you be teaching this year?
At the moment I am busy promoting my new workshops at the moment only here in Israel. I
am teaching the millefiori technique for beginners and advanced. Millefiori technique involves
the production of polymer canes, with multicolored patterns which are viewable only from the
cut ends of the cane. The canes are being reduced until thin while still maintaining the cross
section's design, and then cut into beads or discs when cooled.
Where can we find you?
My blog: http://thingsthatmakemegowhoo.blogspot.com/
Website: www.caramya.com
Shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/shirlief
Shirley, thanks for the sharing! All the best to your business.
