Month: July 2010
Cheryl’s Etsy shop, Hot Tin Roof New Orleans, shares a name with Tennessee Williams’ infamous play. Her bags are perfect for the modern southern belle, even though she’s a Canadian transplant.
You’re obviously influenced by the south and I love your shop’s name. How does
Pick up your own bag at Hot Tin Roof New Orleans.
Show & Tell
I’m not really sure where I picked up my nasty little jewelry habit. Neither my mom or maw maw ever wear jewelry, not even their wedding rings. Somehow I’m making up for both of them because I can’t get enough of it. So when two recently interviewed Etsy artists, Shelley’s South Shore Jewelry and Mavens Jewelry offered to send me an item and a discount, respectively, I happily obliged.
My criteria for picking which designers to feature here is pretty simple: they have to be located in the south and it has to pique my interest.
I love the ring I purchased from Mavens jewelry. The design is based on the skirt of a flamenco dancer and it is easy to see why. This piece has great fluidity and I love the sheen of the black pearls.
Check out that amazing DIY manicure. Just call me Mrs. high maintenance. Didn’t y’all know I’m a retired hand model?
Jose Sierra is a New Orleans jeweler with a background in architecture. The combination of fashion and function makes Jose’s pieces quite unique.
Rubber teardrop earrings
Tell Slow Southern Style readers a little about yourself. You studied architecture, how does this translate into your jewelry design?
You’ve spent time in San Francisco and you are from New Orleans. I find the cities have some similarities and many differences. How has each influenced your work?
Your work has been featured quite a bit in art galleries and fashion shows. How do you perceive your work, as art, fashion, or both? Do you think there is a difference between the two, or is fashion an extension of the art world?
What are your plans for the future? Any upcoming projects that you’d like to tell us about?
Define southern style.
Jose’s work is currently available in his Etsy shop.
The south is all about traditions, whether you are happily partaking in old ones, creating new ones or breaking them altogether. Personally I find it amusing when I don pearls since I have visible tattoos, three of which are southern icons. No matter how you choose to showcase your pride it’s always good to treat our icons with reverence and a big dash of fun. At least that’s what I told myself when I got my Sailor Jerry shrimp tattoo. What can I say I’m serious about not taking myself too seriously!
Ahem. Back to the post.
Dixie Patches is an online store that specializes in traditional southern style. Whether it be a seersucker hanky for your dog, shotgun cufflinks, or a magonlia pendant necklace this Florida based company is heavy on tradition and fun.
These cute silver charms are reminiscent of the things we love. Gators, okra, mint juleps, and magnolias. When you purchase the peel & eat shrimp or the oyster cracker charms your purchase will benefit the America’s Wetland Foundation. They also donate a percentage of the hurricane palm to the Greater New Orleans Foundation
Finishing touches for women include grosgrain bows, t-shirts, and jewelry.
I think this sums up a southern belle nicely:
She is sweet, yet strong
She sips her wine, yet gulps her beer
She’s polite, yet saucy
She’s refined, yet wild
She wears bows… fishing
She’s a Southern Belle
Rye is offering 30-50% off white dresses just in time for White Linen Night.
Sterling Silvia is having a 50% off sale on all their Save the Turtles colleciton.
Porter Stevens summer sale is going on now with clearance items marked 30-60% off.
Sabai Jewelry 20-25% off everything in the store now through August 15th.
And don’t forget to enter for a chance to win Go NOLA’s men’s makeover! One lucky guy will win a prize package from Branch Out, Buffalo Exchange, Rubenstein’s, and Twisted Hair Salon. Hurry up and enter the deadline is July 25th.
She who sells jewelry by the sea
Whenever I think of Florida I think about those “shark attack” tees with the manufactured faux blood and slash marks or neon bikinis sold in surf shops. Fortunately there’s more to the Sunshine State than just the tourist trinkets that I remember from my childhood. Michele of Shelley’s South Shore Jewelry creates fun lockets, rings, and more that are reminiscent of Florida without a shark in sight.
Shelley can you tell us a little bit about your shop and how you got started making jewelry?
My shop has an eclectic mix of what I consider beautiful materials. I got started by attending local art shows and being drawn in to the jewelry shops. And what girl isn’t right? No actually I saw the happiness on the customer’s faces as they left with their packages. I had been active in sewing and other arts at an earlier age so I decided to give jewelry a try. The moment I held a bead I was addicted. It is very relaxing.
Sassy seahorse rhinestone necklace
A few of your items have a definite ocean feel, such as the seahorses, mermaids, and starfish. How has living in Florida inspired your work?
Florida inspires my designs in many ways such as the colors of the sand, sea and skies. I love working with pearls.My favorite pieces are the whimsical mermaids and my starfish lockets. At times you will actually see a starfish in the sand which I find very relaxing and romantic.
Flamingo altered art necklace
What’s your favorite subject matter? Anything you’re interested in focusing on for future collections?
I would like to continue making my vintage jewel earrings and rhinestone brooch lockets. I am hoping to have time to make pearl and jewel necklaces for the winter season.
Dance of the starfish necklace
When you aren’t designing jewelry what do you do?
When I’m not designing jewelry I am usually playing with one of my grandchildren. I also help my husband with paperwork for his business. I like to get an hour a night to watch TV, usually HGTV. I’m a very simple person.
Turquoise brass leaf earrings
Define southern style.
When I think of the phrase southern style satisfied, relaxed and romance comes to mind.
As far as jewelry design goes bits and pieces of the items that belonged to someone’s grandmother. Comfortable, easy to wear designs that will go well with any occasion define southern design to me.
Peaceful dove adjustable ring
Make a splash with your own piece of jewelry from Shelley’s South Shore Jewelry.
Frock Friday
A’ight I lied again. This week it’s another top and skirt combo. I’ve actually never thought to wear this baggy tee tucked in with a skirt but I’d like to think it works.
I have to say this is the most hilarious picture of me ever. I look so….virtuous.
When I stumbled upon Emily McCallon’s Etsy shop, Mavens Jewelry, I instantly knew I’d have to feature her work here. Emily lives in New Orleans but has studied in New York and Italy and “knows how to handle a $70K Asscher-cut diamond.” Her jewelry is expertly crafted, highly personal and something you’ll wear forever.
I’m a big believer in jewelry as less of a fashion statement, more of a personal declaration. Your work seems to embody this philosophy. Can you tell us a little about your design process?
In a sense, my process is all about challenge and personal expression: I’m focused on creating work that closely reflects my interests (for example, natural forms, and ideas I’ve experienced through travel, etc.); at the same time, I am never satisfied with work that is easy for me to accomplish, or which I think of as relatively simple to execute. I mean, I don’t want to create complicated design, but I don’t really see the point in creating new designs unless they’re pushing my skills and experience further in the process. So yes, I would say that design is very personal to me, but I think that’s the only way you get work that is truly unique and expressive.
You studied jewelry design in Italy and New York, which must have been quite an honor. Can you tell us a little about that experience?
Italy was amazing–just a hothouse of inspiration. Some of my biggest influences are from that place, and that period of my life, including the Etruscan and Roman goldsmithing techniques, and lost-wax casting. Most of the work I actually created while I was there was figurative, and grew out of my immersion in classical sculpture and figurative painting–while those pieces are not currently in my collection on the website, they are still near and dear to my heart, and a major inspiration to my other work.
Your pieces have a very fluid feel to them and seem to be inspired by specific things based on the names of your pieces. What do you draw inspiration from?
Yes, naming the collections has been a lot of fun. I’ve used some of the names as jumping-off points for designs, like ‘Flamenco’, whereas other collections just grew into themselves from other (perhaps less accessible) ideas, like the “Teething Ring’. I had done all of these hand-carved meringues, which, when cast, were too heavy, so when I sawed off the base of the meringue, I had the form for the Teething Rings. It was at the same time that my daughter was chewing on those little water-filled jelly rings that you put in the freezer, and it just struck me as a better, more user-friendly design than the meringues ever had been. I hate to say it, because it’s the cliche, but you just have to draw inspiration from the things that surround you–after all, what else is there, really.
Tourmaline Wheel Necklace
What are your other hobbies when you aren’t designing jewelry?
Other hobbies? Oh god, where do I begin? Decorating. Baking. Trying out new cocktail recipes. Running. As far as jewelry goes, running is key: I ran my first marathon this past December, and I worked out many design kinks while doing the long training runs. Sort of Zen, think…pavement.. don’t think… breathe… jewelry.
Shell Ring
Define southern style.
Southern style. Hmmm. In the South, people are forced to take on new habits and modes of expression, especially during the summer, with its fiendishly hot weather. Sometimes a big, chunky pair of earrings or a delicious cocktail ring are just about the only means of inserting a little high-class femininity when it’s too hot to think about anything more complicated than a halter and shorts. From my perspective, the “southern”-ness of my style is closely tied to the Florida coastline where I spent summers in my childhood. The shells and other shapes I collected from those sugar beaches deeply informed my approach. Hopefully someday, after this horrible mess is cleaned up, I can show my own daughter the same inspirational natural forms.
Mention you saw Maven’s Jewelry on Slow Southern Style and receive a 15% discount on any item in the shop! Just sent her a convo before placing the order to receive the discount.
- The Green Project is hosting a rust dyeing fabric demonstration on Saturday, July 17th from 11am-12pm. Learn how to use rust to make designs and prints on fabric and show how to use this textile art after it has been dyed.
- Yvonne Lafleur‘s summer sale is going on now. The shop is offering 30% off linen, $99 cocktail and day dresses, Mardi Gras gowns $99-$199 and much more.
- Ballins LTD is offering an additional 40% off sale merchandise from now until Saturday July 17th.
- Feet First is celebrating their 33rd anniversary by offering 33% off everything, including sale items Friday July 23rd-Sunday July 25th.
- Plato’s Closet is having a $1.00 sale July 17th and 18th
- Thrift City USA is offering 1/2 off all clothing and shoes this Thursday (today)
- Enter to win a men’s Makeover from Go NOLA! The lucky winner will receive a full makeover, including a haircut. For more information go here. Trust me guys the prize package is outstanding!