I want to take a minute and say that ThisRocksMySocks is going to be taking a little break starting Saturday, October 27th - but don't worry! TRMS will be back with an all new special week with the fabulous ladies of the Cagey Crafters Forums!

I'm going to leave you with a wonderful interview till then - I am so pleased to have gotten a chance to interview Misty from Silver Mist Studios. Hers is an inspiring story, and how can you not love the pretty jewelry Silver Mist Studios creates? Onward!

Let's start with the basics - Who is behind Silver Mist Studios? How did it start? How long have you been creating your beautiful jewelry? Give the world a little background.

Silver Mist Studios was created officially in 2004. The people behind it is me, Misty O’Neal, my Mom Sylvia Coburn and my Aunt, Barbara Carter. I have always loved making simple beaded jewelry which started in high school with single strand seed bead necklaces done on fishing line, finished with knots and screw together clasps. I am disabled with Muscular Dystrophy and had a long time job of 4 years and lost it in 2004. When losing my job, I needed to make some money to help my family because finding a job with my disability limiting me so much is very hard to do. So I started taking the jewelry making more seriously. Got online, learned as much as I could and bought more higher quality components. My whole family has always been very talented in many ways. My Mom began to learn how to make handcrafted lampwork glass beads, and my Aunt learned how to make dichroic fused pendants and PMC (Precious Metal Clay) jewelry.


What inspires you?

A lot of people get inspired by many different things. Nature, Photos, etc. I can’t really say what inspires me because it just comes to me randomly. A picture of a piece of jewelry will pop into my head, and then I will try to create it. Other times I will not have any idea what I am going to create until I start putting it together. It may be one bead that will inspire me to use the other components and I design as I go. I don’t do sketches, write down ideas or anything. Just all in my head.


Do you have a personal design philosophy?

I honestly try to NOT have a personal design philosophy. To be frank, I don’t even wear much jewelry… and if I do, it’s normally very simplistic and neutral colors. The reason I try not to have a personal design philosophy is I am not making jewelry for myself. I am making it for others and there are many many different types of styles and tastes in this world. My collection you will see varies tremendously in style. From bold and chunky, to funky, to elegant, to simple, to romantic, etc. My only philosophy really I stand by is proper finishing to ensure long term wear, and appearance and by using high quality materials.


Where is your work sold? Where can people find you?

My work is sold primarily through my website http://www.silvermiststudios.com/ and at Etsy http://silvermiststudios.etsy.com/


What's your store(s) bestseller? Or, if you do mostly one of a kinds, what type of jewelry tends to sell the best (earrings, necklaces, etc.)?

I have mostly exclusive designs, however… I do have some that can be re-created. I will say thus far my best seller is my Whisper Rose Quartz Necklace. I tend to sell mostly Necklaces and Pendants. Otherwise, I do a lot of the BYOB (Build Your Own Bracelet) line custom orders.


What are some of your favorite materials to work with? What do you find yourself drawn to most often?

My favorite materials are absolutely Sterling Silver, Lampwork beads, and Swarovski Crystal. However I love working with Gemstones also and many other types of components.


What's your favorite piece that you've ever done (and is it still for sale)?

I am torn on my favorite piece between two different items. My most favorite is my Fairytale Lampwork Bangle bracelet, and Sea Of Love Amazonite and Aquamarine necklace. The Fairytale is exclusive and not sold yet, and the Sea of Love is a necklace that can be re-created but have not sold one yet.


What's one piece of advice you wish someone had told you when you started? Or, what's the best piece of advice someone gave you when you were starting out?

I will say that the best advice I ever got was to never sell myself short and to value my time and designs. To charge appropriately as when I first started I was charging way too little and not even making the cost of my pieces.


Looking ahead a bit, what's upcoming for Silver Mist?

I will say that this has been the best year we have ever had with sales at Silver Mist, so I expect it to only get better and better. There will be a lot more gemstone designs coming up and more lampwork jewelry as we recently sold a lot of our stock to a store. That would be the looking ahead bit is that we are now in two retail stores, and hope to have many more coming. Can’t really give much further information on upcoming, because as I stated, I don’t really know what I am doing until I am doing it! That is what makes it so much fun!!


What else do you want the world to know that I didn't think to ask?

I am a huge animal lover! I am a mommy to quite the zoo of critters. I have my dear service dog, Nellie. I am a hobby breeder of chinchillas and own 20 of them. They are pets before breeders. I also own three prairie dogs! I finally found a job I could do well in 2006, I work at Dell computers and have been there for over a year and a half. So I may be disabled but you cannot let that get you down and just continue to do all you can and whatever you want to do! As long as it makes you happy!

 

**Original Blog that featured this interview can be viewed here: This Rocks My Socks