We have a winner! Thank you everyone for participating!!It's Giveaway time again! Meet Sarah, the artisan behind Armillata Designs, who has graciously agreed to giveaway one of her beautiful hand crafted necklaces worth $27. It's the necklace pictured above.
Have a look at some of the gorgeous jewelry from her shop. Her shop is FULL of stunning pieces!
Pearl Garnet and Green Flower Garden Copper Earrings $20
Pink and Cranberry Pearl Choker Necklace $22
Aqua Quartz Pink Pearl Cluster Bracelet $35
White Wisteria Blue Flower Pearl Cluster Earrings $22
Amber Crystal Brass Bird Necklace $25I think this one may be my favorite but it's so hard to pick just one!!
What is your background/where are you from?
I grew up on a small farm in central Indiana, in a town so unknown that instead of telling people its name, I just tell them it's halfway between Indianapolis and Purdue University, two of the few locations non-Hoosiers are likely to have a passing acquaintance with. After college, I struck out for Dallas, TX, where I stayed for seven years, until I decided it was time to continue my search for constantly warmer places to live and moved to Florida.
Please share what inspired you to name your shop Armillata Designs?
In college I discovered that my favorite foreign language happened to be a dead one, Latin. To make up for the fact that I'll never get to use it unless I move to the Vatican, unlikely given that I'm Jewish and female, I try to slip Latin in where I can. “Armillata” is the feminized form of the adjective “armillatus,” meaning “adorned with a bracelet.” It seemed fitting for a shop dedicated to historically influenced designs, and no one else was using it yet (a small miracle in the Internet age). On the down side, it's a popular term among scientists for naming banded birds and insects, so when you google it, you're reasonably likely to find a research report on the mating habits of fruit flies before you find my jewelry.
How did you discover your talent for making jewelry?
Growing up, I was a passionate crafter, something my parents and the local 4-H program wholeheartedly encouraged. I played with jewelry designs as a teenager, but it wasn't until after college, when I began seeking less academic outlets for my creativity and mental energy, that I became truly addicted. For the first time, I had access to real bead shops, classes, clubs, and training materials that helped me shape my clumsy self-taught techniques into more polished and professional directions.
What is your favorite place to get supplies (online/ or a favorite local supply shop)?
Oh, this is tough! One of the first things I discovered when I became serious about beading is that there's no one outlet that has everything I need, or at least not at the best price. When I lived in Dallas, my favorite place was the Rock Barrel, a huge no-frills lapidary shop that had a wonderful variety of well priced semiprecious stones. I miss that shop terribly. Here in Florida, my favorite place so far is actually the Oldsmar Flea Market. It's turned out to be a very fun place to hunt down the vintage jewelry and found objects I love adding to my designs.
What inspires you? Is there a specific art movement/artist, place, person, time period?
I have always loved history, ancient or otherwise, and I try to add a taste of it to my pieces, even when it's not obvious, though I've never focused on one specific time period. For me personally, if I won the lottery, you'd find me in a Tuscan villa, whose inside would be floor to ceiling Art Nouveau, but for my jewelry, I look to everything from rustic ancient Roman glass and intricate Etruscan gold granulation through the classic shapes of mid-century fashion.
Where do your ideas come from? Can you explain the creative process?
My creative process is best described as organized chaos, minus the organized part. I wish I could sit at my sketch pad, plan a design, and neatly create it, but I never can. Instead, I sit amongst piles of beads, stones, and supplies, to the intense consternation of my husband-to-be, who sees a big mess rather than creativity at work, and wait for inspiration to strike. Usually I find myself captivated with a particular shape or color, marveling at the way light hits it or how it feels, and then begin building my design around that part. When ideas won't come, I often find a trip to an antique store helps jump start my brain, either because I bring home some new component to play with, or I'll see some gorgeous vintage piece I can't possibly afford, and I'll begin thinking of ways to adapt aspects of it into handmade jewelry form.
Is this your day job or do you have another?
This is presently my day job. I spent the past six years working in, and eventually managing, a used bookstore. It was a wonderful place, with incredible people (and books. Did I mention books?), but when I learned that life was going to take me to Florida and away from my bookstore, it seemed like the perfect time to explore the dream I had poking around in my head about selling my jewelry.
Do you have a favorite project/piece out of all the pieces you've made and why?
My favorite piece was one I made years ago. It's not the most elaborate design, or the most challenging, it was simple stringing, but it was one of those pieces where all the components just seemed to come together on their own and look perfect. It has a hand lamp worked focal bead, framed by sea green faceted pearls, Czech crystals, gold accents, and smaller pearls, and I love it. It looks like an ancient Roman choker, and of course, matches almost nothing I own.
Have you found any challenges in your work?
Every day. Mental challenges, like finding fresh ideas or the patience to complete more elaborate projects, and structural challenges, like figuring out why a necklace won't drape properly when you've reworked it twelve times and everything should be right. And of course, opening my Etsy shop created a whole new category of challenges to be be worked out, like how to create professional and appealing photographs (some thing I still struggle with. There's nothing as sad as making a beautiful design that just isn't photo-friendly) or how to decode the language of SEOs and page ranking and and website design. Fortunately for me, there's a planet full of helpful people and resources, most of which are only a quick search away.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
I'm honored and delighted to have been featured on your lovely blog, and I hope that if anyone reads this who's been considering taking their passion or hobby to the next level, whether that means selling, or just investing more of themselves into it, that they go ahead and take that plunge, and that they find the same kind of fulfillment and reward in their creations that I have in mine.
*Giveaway*
To Enter To Win The Beautiful Necklace:
Visit her etsy shop, Armillata Designs and leave a comment telling me your favorite item in either store. Don't forget to leave your e-mail so I can contact you if you have won.
Extra Entries: please leave one separate comment for each entry.
•follow my blog with google - 1 extra
•follow me on twitter (lilacpop)-1 extra
•become a fan of LilacPOP on Facebook - 1 extra (and there are giveaways on there as well which you will be automatically entered into each time just for being a fan).
•tweet this giveaway and post the link in your comment- (may do this daily) 1 extra/day
Copy and paste below:
I just entered to win a handmade necklace on the LilacPOP Blog! @lilacpop http://ow.ly/1JyBn
•favor me on technorati , stumble upon or any other social networking site- 1 extra
•Put a link to my blog on your blog - 1 extra
•blog about this giveaway - 1 extra
•buy a product from either etsy shop - 5 extra
Contest will run for 1 week. Ends at Midnight on the night of May 17, 2010. Open to All Countries. Winner will be chosen by random.org. Winner will be notified by e-mail and will have 3 days to reply or another winner will be chosen.