WHOO HOOOO! So here I am at the beginning of my creative journey!
As a lifelong introvert, I always saw my role as the support person for someone else; my boss at work, my husband and anyone who I perceived to be more worthy than me. I grew up in an era that chose that path for girls in general and attempts to stray from that direction were swiftly and effectively squashed. I remember thinking that there must be something more but my future was determined and that was that.
Fast forward to today! As a 'woman of a certain age', I'm finally taking the opportunity to walk the path I choose, to use my God-given creativity to create fun and unique jewelry pieces to appeal to women of all ages. This is a self-taught journey for the most part although several years ago I took a hugely informative class at Creative Side Jewelry Academy which gave me a foundation and the confidence to go forward by myself using the trial and error method. Lots of trials, lots of errors but that's supposed to be the best way to learn, right?
I had started my first jewelry journey back in 2009 in a drafty corner of our shop barn; freezing my buns off in the winter and sweating profusely in an oven-hot metal box in the Texas summer. This time I wanted to do it right (and more comfortably!) so my first task was to procure a suitable building and I found a simple 12x20 shed (see pic above) at Graceland Portable Buildings in Stephenville which was swiftly delivered at the beginning of April, 2019.
I promptly got an education in finish-out as I put in the floor (peel and stick tiles are brilliant), itched my way through the installation of insulation, balanced sheets of drywall precariously on my big toe, painted the entire interior and dug the trench for utilities by hand. All with varying degrees of success and an impressive and colorful vocabulary.
I contracted out the electrical work (oh yeah, not dumb enough to try that on my own!) and my husband installed the air conditioner/humidifier and built a heavy duty bench but everything else was done by yours truly. It's not the neatest job in the world but its mine, all mine!
As you can see from the accompanying photographs, I live in a fairly remote area although it's only an hour away from Fort Worth. The biz is named 'Sunday Creek Too' as the property itself is called 'Sunday Creek Ranch' named after a tributary to the Brazos River that cuts our property in half. A lack of imagination at a critical time made me blurt out 'Sunday Creek Too!' when forming the company and so there it is.
My faithful studio buddy is my black and white Pibble (Pitbull mix) named Bandit - I mean, look at him, could we have called him anything else? We were not going to get any more dogs for a while but he was on our local shelter's euthanasia list and, well, I just couldn't let that happen of course so he moved in and took over our lives. Our remote supervisor is the house cat, Teskey and we are occasionally checked on by two curious mares.
So here I go! My studio is cool in the summer and will be warm in the winter and there's not much more that I can ask for to be comfortable. I have a fantastic 20-ton jewelry press from Kevin Potter which produces great three dimensional pieces, a torch and various tools but really looking forward to adding more as the years roll by. This isn't a sprint, its a steady pace for the rest of my life and I am thrilled to be on my way! I hope you'll check in with me as I add more pieces to the inventory ;0)
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