DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE

THE POTTI TEAM BLOG

They both seem a little larger than life; before the Potti Team existed I noticed them as intriguing personalities on Twitter.  Char's avatar is a purple and black upholstered chair bearing a black and white tuxedo cat.  Michele's avi looks like something out of a childhood fantasy - a swing bearing a fabulous female with full, billowing skirts.  You might look at their shops and get the impression that although they both make jewelry, they are light years apart from one another in style and process.  This makes all the more amusing the fact that at the moment, they are both enthused about the same thing.

Char's jewelry is funky, and runs the spectrum in style from Art Nouveau to Goth, classy to quirky.   She uses metals, beads, watches, lockets, miniature music boxes, chains, and more.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Michele describes her own jewelry as girly-girly.  She uses silk flowers, pendants with copies of paintings by turn-of-the-century (the twentieth, not the twenty-first) artists like Waterhouse.  She sells distinctive tiaras and beautifully beaded necklaces.  She says she is kind of in her "second Hippiehood."

Three of her tiaras have been worn on the very current (Southern) television show, "Hart of Dixie."

On the set of Hart of Dixie

On the set of Hart of Dixie

Both Michele and Char had a former life, so to speak. Char states, "In my earlier years, I had a wholesale gift business and did the wholesale gift shows. I sold finished ceramic giftware. Of course I had to rent a building that was large enough to house the molds, pouring equipment, kilns, paints, glazes and what not. After 10 years of the giftware industry I sold my business and went to work for the City near where I lived. I only did small crafting projects for myself or friends for many years. 

"This time when I decided I wanted to begin creating again for re-sale and not just myself or gifts I knew my husband would have a tiny stroke if I started talking about getting back into ceramics. I have always dabbled in making jewelry so about three years ago I started gathering supplies to make something fun and ended up in love with every bead, bauble, bit of chain, charm, stampings, and findings I could get my hands on. From then on it has been a journey to decide what my style is and what I want to create."

She is so pleased with her Etsy business that she says, referring to her friends:  "I want them all to sell online and quit their day jobs."

Ironically, that is exactly what Michele was forced to do. 

She began working in 1974, and in 1980 moved to Colorado.  In 2003 her mother had a heart attack resulting from taking on the care of four children, the youngest still a baby.  Michele moved back to Illinois to help raise/rear those children.  This speaks volumes to me about who Michele really is.  It was also the catalyst which led to her Etsy store.

Michele says, "I started making my own Jewelry when I couldn't find clip earrings for myself! Then she "…just fell in Love with making Necklaces to match, then the Flower Crowns, [hair]clips...."

I asked Char to describe for us how she makes her jewelry.  She says, "The type of jewelry I design and create is called assemblage jewelry. You bring different components together to form a piece of jewelry.

"When designing a new
 piece of jewelry I have 
usually already decided on a theme for it and then the fun part is picking out the supplies that are needed to design and make it. 

I love working with brass and silver ox stampings, charms, beads, chain and assorted findings. 

After thinking the design through or sketching it out, I start my quest to find the perfect stamping or charm to fit whatever new piece I am making.

"Once I have found a stamping or charm for the focal point, I need to make sure it can be molded to the base watch, pendant, bracelet or whatever it may be that I am working on. Once the stamping or charm has been prepped to fit where I need it to on the new piece I mount it and begin looking for goodies to add around it to give it that one of a kind look. It could be beads, additional stampings that are layered on, a piece of vintage jewelry that needs to be repurposed or it could be

as simple as adding some color or glitter to the stamping or charm. Just depends on what I have in mind for the design.

"After I have everything I want mounted securely for the new piece of jewelry, I use a clear resin to paint over the entire design to give it a glossy mirror like finish. With the resin it assures me everything is going to stay where it has been placed and will maintain its original beauty. "

Char's kind, sharing spirit is understood as we read Michele's words, the enthusiasm of which radiates off of the page. "I talked to Char a while ago, she suggested I sell necklaces to match my Crowns. …I LOVE "Layered Jewelry" {different stampings on top of one another, Char does this!} and I wanted to go into that direction, but needed a Strong glue for that, Char LOVES the Resin, so I looked into it....Well DOWN the rabbit hole we GO!

"You can DO SO MUCH with this!! Imagine my Joy when I realized I could make necklaces with Real Flowers and my Own Opals!!!! [She is referring to man-made foiled opals - a practice that goes back to Victorian times.] So....for the last 4 weeks, I've been buying & drying tiny Flowers and coming up with different colors for the Opals! And also working on the Layering! Having a Blast doing this!

"I'm sending you a few photos of the New stuff, the Opals are Very difficult to photo, and I have like 15 of them! The layered Necklace has a Crown to match, I'll list these soon!

It will take a while to list these, the opals, anyway...I'm sending you a photo of a pink bud with opal around it, but I'm not sure I like this yet, it might not be in the shop!"

To be added to Michele's shop at a later date

Experimental;  may be added to Michele's shop at a later date

To be added to Michele's shop at a later date

One of the many things I love about Etsy is the environment that seems to foster goodwill by giving us opportunities to do small kindnesses for one another.The teams are a framework in which we can actually help and support each other, often those who make or sale the same thing that we do.  Char and Michele are a wonderful example of this at its best. It is our own kind of Wonderland. ~ Michele Davidson