Bead Arts

Ladies Social

Cindy Forrester recently started an Etsy shop to sell her unique twist on vintage! She mixes old jewelry parts with ephemera to create one-of-a-kind jewels. Cindy writes:

Since I was a child I have always had the need to be creative. My 7th grade teacher kept every piece of artwork I did and she told me she had them framed and hung them in her home. She was such an inspiration to me. She always told me I could do anything I wanted to do with my art. I have never forgotten those words from her and have been creating ever since. I have mostly done paintings and some commissioned work, murals and furniture. I would pretty much paint on anything-canvas, old saw blades, furniture, and pieces of wood.

I was raised in Virginia in the country and my grandparents had a tobacco farm that we helped work in the summer and fall. They lived in an old farm house (no plumbing in the house except for a kitchen sink) and there were lots of old things in there. I grew up appreciating antiques. They had 3 rooms they never used that had all kinds of things from old jewelry (what we call vintage now), old clothes, shoes, paper dolls and even a few skeleton keys. I played dress up all the time, I loved the old jewelry, I would give anything to have them now. I guess that is where the love for old things came from. Since I have gotten older I love going antiquing, finding old rosaries, pearls, cameos, and religious medals, and medallions, and going to flea markets.

I am inspired by anything European from the past (my ancestors are English and Irish), antique, old, unusual, rusty, old metal, tin ceiling tiles, vintage chains, rhinestones, crystals, charms, tintype photos. I love the tintype photos or any old photos. When I look at them I try to imagine what they are doing or thinking and I will name some of my pieces that way. When I start creating the jewelry I am not always sure where I am going with it, it just evolves as I work on it. This is the part I have a passion for putting it together and seeing the end result. I like things that are different and I could never find jewelry in stores that had that Wow factor enough for me to buy,so I decided to combine the two -art and jewelry. Since I am having so much fun I decided to start selling my jewelry at CindyForrester.Etsy.com

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