You can't have Vintage Fashion Week with out one of the most important parts the accessories. Today, I'm featuring one of my favorites 1ofmykind. I would love to have one of everything from this shop.
Jody the artist behind 1ofmykind has an amazing line of jewlery and continually adding new pieces. Using an age old tradition of filigree. Her work is completely done by her own two hands and her many pairs of pliers.
Pictured Left Peacock Tales.
Getting to Know Jodi of 1ofmykind - The Interview
1. What's the inspiration that drives your artistry?
Besides
feeding my 3 kids... LOL...I'd have to say simply sharing a gift. This
is a difficult subject to brooch(pun intended:) without sounding snooty
but let me explain it like this. I believe it is an obligation to the
Universe to express love and beauty through the gifts we've been given.
For example I have a cousin, Mary. She sings like an angel. She told me
she wouldn't sing in church because people stared. "What?", I said to
her, "If your not going to share your gift (especially in church) then
what's the point of having it?" I believe we are given talents to use.
Beyond
that I can't really explain...it's just what I do to. Maybe it's my
Croatian, Irish and Cherokee ancestors channeling themselves randomly through me. It certainly doesn't involve thinking or planning. I dunno.
2. How does "vintage" play a role in your work?
I've
been a scrounge hound since day one. Preferring "rummage" sales, as my
Grandma calls them, and dumpsters to mall shopping. Eventually this
addiction led to dealing in antiques and vintage jewelry. Well, I
couldn't let those odds and ends go to waste! So I started re-designing
vintage pieces into hep wearable art. Within a week I'd been placed in
a local boutique. Done deal.
I was always especially drawn to
the "CZECHO" pieces which have heavily influence my designs today. Once
the internet dawned I was exposed to the plethora of raw Czech stones
and French filigree I use today. That's where I found Cher
(moondancer.etsy.com) and Cindy and several other fabulous woman online
who sold genuine antique filigree. I bought Cindy out. I'm still
workin' on Cher . We exchange goodies and laughs often as fellow
filigreeoholics. I traveled to hoard as much as I could. Now my studio
bows with a ton (literally) of antique Czechoslovakian jewels, rare
original French butterfly wing filigree, and the left overs of my years
of stashing broken odds and ends. Yes, the Trashion line is on it's
way! Today I incorporate vintage tooled filigree that is still produced
today. I hand temper it and it becomes the perfect match for my vintage
chaining and antique filigree.
3. What makes your style of jewelry unique?
I
do something entirely new with materials that have been around for over
a century. Setting the stone within the Art Nouveau era filigree
without the use of solder, glue, prong settings, or plating began right
here.( I have the giant thumb muscles as proof:) It all started with
coveting Victorian filigree belts. I'd take them apart and wrap the
links around stones to make pendants. I still have a few although most
were sold in the 90's when I started.
If you look on the back of
an old Czech necklace or brooch you will see that the filigree was
produced to accept solder and prong-settings to accept stones. When I
started re-designing many times I would hang the pendant backwards
because I preferred the filigree to the stone. I sort of look at what I
do today as an homage to the incredibly talented, long past, French
filigree, artisans who created these intricate toolings only to have
them be forgotten under a stone or behind a pendant. Hey maybe they are
the ones helping me from the other side? Or perhaps I WAS one of them
in a past life! God only knows...because I can't figure it out.
I
relish in making pristine museum quality jewels. I love adding my
personal touch like hammering my earwires and making nearly everything
adjustable or evolutionary in some manner. I have heard countless
stories of how my jewels affected peoples lives in amazing ways. I am
eternally grateful for receiving and sharing these gifts.
Thank you to Jody for sharing her amazing gift with us and her stories. Don't forget to check out her daughters line KATITUDE as she's following amazingly in her mothers footsteps with a very nice line of jewelry.
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