Feature Artist: C Serpent

I saw these 2 beautiful bracelets in fellow Etsian Susan's shop. I find this unusual combination of beadwork band and sterling silver chain very pleasing. They were actually designed for the JET/Etsy Greetings/EtsyFAST Wedding Challenge and won FIRST PLACE. I'm not surprised since they are just exquisite. I love the speckles of teal added to it instead of just keeping it white and black. Susan's, the artist behind these creations, tale of becoming a jewelry designer is quite interesting. So I just share it here in her voice: "Hi my name is Susan and I'm the creator of cserpentDesigns! My husband nicknamed me Sea Serpent during our scuba diving days (picture a tall person in a purple and black drysuit with a pink flotation vest coming out of the water with big black fins on her feet ... yep sea serpent fits!). He even got me a sea serpent stamp to use for my "signature" on my hand made cards.

I got started in jewelry making when one of my soccer teammates got me to go to a wirewrapping class with her. I made my first bracelet in that class (and as I look at it now I want to take it apart and redo it to look a lot nicer!). I then saw a beaded watch band in a magazine and figured I could expand on that idea and make myself a cool beaded watch band in PURPLE! (my favorite color). I started the watch band using gold plated findings, finished it up at another wire wrapping class and got interest from many of my friends and family in having jewelry made for them. I still was just dabbling and got really mad when the gold plated findings started to tarnish in a very short amount of time. From that I learned my lesson about making things that last - don't make them with gold or silver plated parts if you want them to last a long time and remain beautiful!

That 2nd wire wrapping class really drove my interest in making jewelry with beads. I took more classes in basic jewelry making (stringing, knotting, ...) and have been making jewelry for family and friends and other customers for 4 years now. " I love to hear how others come to choosing the hobby they have. For me, it always has bead jewelry making. Although I also tried many, many, MANY other things, I always came back to it. So it is interesting for me to hear from someone that has only recently discovered the pleasures of creating wearable art. And I think that once you do, you can never go back!
More of C Serpents work can be found at http://cserpent.etsy.com
http://cserpentDesigns.blogspot.com