Featured Artist Laurel of Silver Flower Jewelry

According to Laurel, she was “born with a crayon in my hand, then graduated to pencils, charcoal and watercolor, acrylic and oil painting!” Creativity from the start makes for a very colorful life!

Laurel was fortunate to have been born, as well, to creative parents who were both classically trained musicians, so her world was always full of music and art. This musically filled childhood led to Laurel picking up a guitar about 10 years ago and a stack of songs written for her own enjoyment. Her grandmother was the one that put her first paintbrush in her hand! Laurel is a wife, daughter, sister, aunt, step-mom and grandma and currently works as an administrative coordinator in Oregon. Fancy title which she explains is really a glorified customer service gopher…maybe not glamorous, but a job that she loves nonetheless.

A few years ago, the creative soul kicked in for Laurel and she picked up jewelry making for the first time. She had no intention of selling her work, merely as a source of entertainment for herself. She soon stumbled upon PMC (Precious metal clay) for the first time which reminded her of grey play-doh out of the package; but add some fire and you have stunning silver pieces that have to be seen to be believed. She is self taught after much internet research and the results are beautiful! Laurel has found her passion and her, and her families, life will never be the same. It has been a journey of trial and error and she sees each piece as an extension of herself.

Soon after diving headlong into this medium,Laurel’s ever practical husband suggested selling her work to support her new-found habit and SilverFlowerJewelry was born. Her first few sales were to family members, as so many of ours are, but she soon branched out to the world. Her first sales were a bit hard for Laurel as she readily admits to getting emotionally attached to her pieces. “Each piece is hand made to be unique and represents a part of my creative personality.” On the flip side,Laurel loves to see her customers feel a connection to a piece she has created and knowing that it was meant just for them. She is trying to learn to detach herself from her work, but that may just be a long work in progress!

Laurel is happy to offer some sound advice to anyone considering selling their own handmade work. She stresses making sure the craftsmanship and quality is solid before trying to sell your work to anyone, then do your marketing research and go for it! Talk to others that have successful businesses of their own and ask for tips and advice…then use it to build your own business into what you want it to be.

Laurel has tried her hand selling at local art shows, though she readily admits that the set up and work of a show is not her favorite way of selling. At the same time, she loves the face to face interaction and seeing the reaction to her work. She also shows and sells her work in a local shop in Oregon called Little Things.

If you are not local to Portland, not to worry, Laurel is easy to find online on HandmadeArtists as well as on Etsy and her own Website. You can check out her works on Facebook and follow her on Twitter. If you do see a piece you love, but it isn’t quite right, Laurel is happy to discuss commissioned work and special orders.

Tags: artisan, Handmade, Handmade Artists, handmade jewelry, handmadeartists, jewelry, pmc, silver, silver jewelry, silverflowerjewelry