what has and always will be
Somewhere in the depths of my attic are some storage boxes that hold photo albums of my childhood. Within those albums, you’ll find plenty of proof that I’ve been a jewelry gorl since day 1. Well, probably since age 4, realistically. As soon as I discovered accessories, I threw that shit on like it would never go out of style. I layered chunky plastic beaded bracelets on my wrists, a tiara on my head and the fakest of gemstones around my neck.
Fast forward a few years and I learned to make my own jewelry. Oh it was game over. I learned about clasps and crimp beads and which kinds of wires for bracelets and what an eye pin was. I made numerous pairs of earrings for my mom, which I can almost guarantee she still has a few pairs of. It was around this time, or maybe before, that I began hoarding embroidery thread like the stores were going to run out (ya know like stores ran out of toilet paper in 2020??). I made more friendship bracelets than I had friends. They kept me busy on road trips with my family in the summer. I learned all sorts of complicated and impressive patterns. I tied them around my wrists and ankles and let them fall off whenever they decided it was time to go.
Fast forward again, maybe about 12 years or so. It’s 2020 and I’m bored as all get out. I started exploring new hobbies like everyone and their mother did in that time. Somehow I came across a polymer clay artist who made jewelry out of those colorful blocks of sculpey clay. I tapped right into my inner child, my inner jewelry maker. It didn’t take long to get hooked. Slowly, over the span of the following year, it became a business. (Me?? A business owner???). Listen, I went to school for science. I aced organic chemistry and played with translucent worms in a neuroscience lab. I was on track to living out my nerdy life in a lab or a clinic with some distant dream of winning the nobel prize. Yes, seriously.
But damn, how that day I picked up polymer clay changed the whole trajectory of my life. It’s because of my jewelry business and taking photos of my earrings that I decided to give my photography a chance and realized I’m more in love with this craft than anything I’ve ever put my hands on.
Recently, a friend taught me how to carve wax rings to then be casted in sterling silver. I carved my first ring a couple weeks ago and wow, I’m hooked. I have so many ideas for other rings and pendants.
For the last several months I’ve been eager to photograph a jewelry campaign. I’ve been trying to get in front of jewelry brands in hopes to do some work for them and bring these ideas to life. While I wait for that moment, I decided to photograph my own little jewelry campaign with some jewelry I own. A lot of my work is warm and dreamy but I’ve been really drawn to photos that have a moodier, blue hue but still maintain that dreamy feel. Kind of like if you were to make a 90s music video more modern, with better style and without all those tacky transitions.
I didn’t want to wait for the process of developing film so these photos are all digital - still with that soft, grainy feel of film, no less.
