In the Studio with Sharon, Mozzafiato! by bojosmom

Hi my name is Sharon. I am a single Mom, I live in Keller, Texas. I love it here, because Keller is a small town very close to the big city of Fort Worth and not to far from Dallas. So we have the small town feel with the convenience of the big city whenever we want it. I have two grown son’s, they are 27 and 20 years old. And I’m excited to announce, I will soon be a Grandmother with the birth of my first Grand child. My youngest son and his wife who live with me are expecting the birth of a baby boy in March. His name will be Camden Lee. Needless to say, we are anxiously awaiting his arrival.

Where did I get started? Well that’s hard to say. I have always been a crafty, artistic type of person. But I’ve never had any formal training. I remember always sketching something as a child. I even one a few art contest in middle school. My favorite subjects to sketch were people and animals. Every year I would draw something special for the class in elementary school to color. My Father had a copier and would make lot’s of copies for me to hand out to all the kids in my class. I remember being so proud when the teacher would hang the pictures on the wall for display after the other kids colored them. I believe I live to create and my surroundings usually influence my creations. I can walk through a craft store and idea’s just pop into my head. I buy the things I need and rush home to put them together, if I don’t create them when I get home, I will seriously not get sleep that night due to my excitement. One thing I’ve noticed over the years is, I’m just not a happy person unless I am being creative. And Jewelry always draws me in. Not sure why, but I’ve always liked making jewelry. I can remember back when my youngest son was a baby, he’d been in his crib watching me while I was creating jewelry out of painted paper, glue and beads. I would create them all week and two women I knew would come by pick up my creations and then show and sell them along with others at home shows that they had booked. (this was way before I owned a computer) Those two women kept me busy thankfully.

Nowaday’s I’m so very thankful I have Etsy. It allows me to reach many more people with the click of my mouse. Much more than those two women ever could. And now my son’s are grown I have lot’s of free time to concentrate on my creations. And there are so much more creations yet to make. I’m working out my home by using half of my bedroom as my studio. I have a crafting table next to my desk, I have lot’s of ribbon hanging on my wall by clothes hangers. And lot’s of what some might think as clutter on my crafting table. But this clutter brings me joy when my creative juices get flowing.

I love to have my television playing with the volume on low while I’m working on my jewelry. I have a schedule of my favorite shows playing all day long. And these shows are usually comedy’s that I’ve seen over and over, but I don’t usually watch them I just love to listen and laugh at there funny antics. Or I will listen to music with Pandora on my computer.

My favorite material to use while making my jewelry is resin and ribbon. I think I like using these materials because there is a bit of a challenge to using the resin and there are so many choices of ribbon to use. I get really excited when I see a unique ribbon and idea’s just start swirling in my mind to create something different. The only thing I don’t like about using resin is it limits me. There are only so many molds on the market. I’ve searched high and low and I just can’t find very many different molds for jewelry. I have mold making materials to use, but none of them work that well for the type of resin that I use. My resin is a slow dry type. It takes 24 to 48 hours for it to completely harden.

As I said before, I love Etsy! So I sell most of my work online. I have been tempted to take my jewelry to nearby shops and sell on consignment. That’s something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. I’m just not sure I want to do that.

I think people should buy homemade so as to help support artist like myself. There’s really nothing special about going to your local department store and buying something made in bulk with no heart. When you buy homemade you know someone put their love, sweat, and tears into what they made. You know what you purchase went through a lot of thought process, and was handled with love and care by the person who created it. It was finished with pride and it becomes a special piece. Not some plastic set of earrings that came from a machine that stamps out thousands at a time. Who can be proud of wearing that?

My goals are to sell enough of my creations so I can keep creating. Maybe some day sell enough to make a profit instead of just breaking even. It would be fabulous if someday I could quit my day job and create my treasures full time as a small business out of home.