tools of the trade :: self-taught jewelry designer

do you have a self-taught career? it had never really occurred to me until i sat down to do this post but i am most definitely in a self-taught career and hopefully, it will be my full-time gig one day!

i am very proud to be self-taught in a lot of different things. it's what makes me, well, me! i feel like this day in age we have so much learning power at our finger tips. a lot of things i've learned from searching tutorials, scouring youtube, etc. it's amazing!

one of the main things i taught myself is jewelry design and manufacturing. i believe it was the lovely samantha over at wandering threads that mentioned she'd love to know how i learned my metal and jewelry techniques. so i thought it would be wonderful to share that with you today.

wanderlustings originally started as a bridal hair accessory line if you can imagine that. the items were lovely and sold really well. but it was hard to keep up with because so many requests were all custom orders. wanderlustings, since it's inception, has always been just me - except in rare occasions when my mom, sister or the honey come help me at a show or my dad helps me solder. i still do custom orders once in a while because amazingly enough people still contact me after seeing some of my pieces. i randomly find my pieces as inspiration on larger blogs which is such a huge compliment! i more recently found my hair pieces featured on lulu frost's blog and the decorista! it's such an honor.

i loved embellishing everything i wore; from adding bow ties or scarves on handbags of mine to switching out buttons on my jacket. so naturally i would be affixing hand-picked silk flowers to combs, right?! not such a logical leap i know but it is one of those merry mishaps that resulted in something beautiful.

unfortunately, i got too overwhelmed and burnt-out on bridal orders. but my interest had been piqued by jewelry crafting. at first i dabbled in period pieces like victorian ruffs - metalwork intimidated me so much that the only other option i could think of was the safety of fabric.

i gradually started to incorporate metal into my fabric pieces and after many googled tutorials on metal tools and process, i made the full leap into metalwork. i picked up tools at hobby lobby and experimented with techniques - made LOTS of mistakes and have honed new skills at every turn. i even took a metal class where i gained a lot of helpful tips and tricks.

right now, i am working on lost wax casting - something that has always intrigued me. once again, this was a googled technique that i learned all about through research and emailing other artisans who happened to be very sweet and helpful.

i love sketching and painting so drawing out my designs and then carving them is such a gratifying experience. the carving part is the hardest since i have never done anything like that before but i am slowly getting the hang of it. i would really love to have an elaborate studio some day where i could do all of the casting in-house but it is insanely expensive. so it looks i will have to work towards that goal in the somewhat near future.

you can see the post on my metal class here.
you can see the post on some of my process here.
my old floral hair combs can be seen here. {have to be logged into facebook to view those i believe}

i hope you enjoyed this post. feel free to let me know if you have any questions or would like to hear more about other topics you are interested in!

lovely workspace image from here.