Tell us a bit about yourself. Well, my name is Emily Dickinson, though I am far from being a poet. I

Tell us a bit about yourself. Well, my name is Emily Dickinson, though I am far from being a poet. I am a confident, hard working and creative jeweller who studied Metal Arts at the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design for two years. The other two years of my degree I studied at UNB as part of the Bachelor of Applied Arts program. During my time at UNB I also spent half a year living in Amsterdam, where I was surrounded by art, bikes and canals. After I graduated, I worked for Trudy Gallagher of Bejewel where I learned a considerable amount of skill and perfected different techniques. I needed to get out though, explore, push myself, so I headed back to Europe for a few months and after coming back with tons of new ideas I worked/rented bench space at The Beanik on Fredericton’s north side. However, my interest in thrift shopping and the strive to help the community and give back landed me a job in management at the city’s most popular second-hand store, Value Village. Since then it has been a tug-of-war between working full time and making jewellery, but I continue to develop new inspirations and ideas that trickle out into my social media connections and word of mouth. Tell us about your business and how you came up with the idea. I’m a jeweller and I play a lot with sterling silver, copper and gold. After working for a local jeweller and a jewellery supply shop, I decided to use the skills I had learned from those jobs and my education to give it a go on my own. My name is Emily Dickinson, which happens to be the same name of a late famous poet from the 1880’s. The name of my business, Upon My Silver Shelf, is the last line of her poem “It Dropped So Low – In My Regard –”. Where do you look for inspiration? I am a huge nature lover and look to incorporate it into my work, whether it be made of something found outside or portraying an organic feel or texture. Nature is amazing and every day provides us with amazing and beautiful rocks, interesting animals, precious metals, amoung other things that you simply have to show off sometimes. Since I work in a thrift store I find all kinds of things from fur to leather to gemstones, that bring up new ideas and ways of working with different materials. I also like to upcycle, meaning I find a really cool ring but I have an idea to turn it into something else. Or say you inherited a ring from your grandmother, but it needs a new stone. What project have you worked on that you enjoyed most and why? I have been a part of the NBCCD annual fashion show for the past 7 years, and last year was the first time I displayed a few items I had made. It really inspired me to have an actual full line of one-of-a-kind pieces and I am proud to say this year I will be doing so and adorning my work on models for my friend Kayleigh of Lunar Offerings on April 12th at the Fredericton Convention Center! So exciting! Do you use Social Media for your business? How has impacted your business? I rely pretty much solely on social media and word of mouth as a way to spread word about what I do. From Facebook, to my shop on Etsy, you can reach anyone in the world, pop items in the mail and share your work on many different networks and sites. Major sites like Facebook, Etsy and Pinterest are super popular and free to use. Being in artist in little ol’ Fredericton and getting known for your work is a lot easier than it used to be as people have information on you and your work at their fingertips. What’s next for you? I’m not totally sure what my next step is. I hope to take some classes to regain what I learned in school over 5 years ago and retouch some skills in casting. I have so many new ideas floating around in my head but without going back to school the resources for executing those ideas is limited if you live in an apartment building and can’t always just pop into the studio. This summer I might pair up with one of my friends and set up a small backyard studio so we can share tools and ideas and work until the wee hours of morning if we wish.To see work by Emily check out her facebook page, Upon My Silver Shelf!Emily’s work will be showcased on Saturday April 12th at the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design’s fashion show “Out of Sequins” at the  Fredericton Convention Center with the Lunar Offerings line! Photograph by Sarah Davison Photography!Also check out her work on facebook. -- source link

More pics about