Sunday Brunch with Brooke

1. Tell us a little about yourself My name is Brooke Medlin, and I live in Ohio with two turtles and an ever-growing stash of craft supplies. I'm a metalsmith by trade, but am currently having an affair with my Gocco screenprinting press. 2. What is your craft? Metal wrangler. Color combiner. Paper printer. 3. What inspires you? I...have no idea! It's sort of an osmosis -everything I see, hear, do - I just absorb it and it comes out in metal form. One thing I CAN pinpoint as being inspirational to me was a passage from Lynn Truss's book 'Eats, Shoots, and Leaves'. It talks about the word 'lacunae', and what it means. It's a latin word, and it means a gap in text. It's also come to refer to those lovely curly brackets that I've never quite figure out the proper word for. That shape was what I was trying to acheive with one of my recent pieces, the Lacunae Necklace. 4. Do you have any advice to give to other indie designers? PROMOTE YOURSELF. You need a blog, a flickr page, a website. I know, it sounds like a lot, but by linking all of these things together, you're able to really promote yourself. Interest builds - it starts out slow, but if you keep at it, it will work. Promise. 5. What is your favorite thing that you have created recently? I love my Relic Necklace, which is a limited edition piece, and only for sale in my Mintd store. I also love my Wrecking Ball Earrings, also avaiable on Mintd. Really, I am very proud of my newest collection, FuturePerfect. It's the first collection that I've really been inspired to make. I generally just make whatever comes to me, and don't do cohesive 'lines'. This collection is the first that really came to me altogether, and has a story behind it. Also, as I mentioned earlier, I just bought a Gocco, and have made my first in what will probably be a ridiculous amount of paper goods with my new favorite crafty toy. I am absolutely enamored with it, and the possiblities it's opened up - I can make gift tages! I can print on my little gift boxes! Notecards! It's all very exciting. You can read about the inspiration behind my new pieces and my other crafty dabbling on my blog. 6. What is the first thing you can remember making by hand? I made maps of my neighborhood a lot. I made audiotapes when I was very small of myself reading stories to imaginary people, playing 'guess the sound' games, and things like that. the first thing I remember making and selling, besides lemonade, were these little baskets in which I'd arranged small pine branches, pine cones, and the little orange berries. They proudly decorated many an end table among my parents' circle of friends. 7. Where do you sell and when did you decide to start selling you work? Right now I'm selling on several websites, and each of these has items that are exclusive to that shop only. Imogene.org, wexarts.org (check the 'shop' link to find my work), and I'm excited to be selling on the brand new offshoot of the Modish blog, Modishoppe.com. Look for the Mum Earrings exclusively on Modish! I'm also excited to be debuting my FuturePerfect collection in my mintd shop. You'll find a few of the items from this collection elsewhere, but the entire collection is available only on Mintd. Last, but not least, my etsy shop. Here you can find the largest range of my work, as well as many past items that are available for special order. I sold my first 'real' piece of jewelry when I was 18, living in Chicago, to a bead store where I'd likely bought all the components to make the piece. I didn't pick up the craft again until I was 21 and back in Ohio, and sold my first pieces about 6 months after I began making them. I still sell my work to the very first shop that bought from me. 8. Apart from creating things, what else do you enjoy? I love taking photos. It's an offshoot of having to take photos of my work - now I love photography as a hobby, instead of just a means to an end. It's neat to be able to look at the world and see 'snapshots' in your mind. I also do yoga, and am hoping to become more diligent and better at it over this coming summer, when business usually slows down a bit. But, really, I'm always 'creating' something, even when I'm not in my studio. There's always somethin' brewing... 9. What three words would describe you the best? funny tallish solitary 10. What/Who is your latest indie crush/designer? Melissa shoes. They started small and have gotten and the company has really grown, it's wonderful. I own three pairs rom their current line and I am NOT a shoe person. Well. I'm a SEASONAL shoe person. Winter shoes have to be functional, so there's a dry spell in my shopping habits during those months. Summer shoes can be anything! So I do tend to buy a few more pairs than is strictly necessary. Melissa has teamed up with some great designers this year, AND they make their shoes from over 90% recycled materials - even the water in their production plant is recycled. That makes me happy. I'm also completely in love with Built by Wendy, and envision myself pairing her nautical-theme current collection with more 'downtown' pieces and looking fabulous. Ha! 11. Anything else you would like to say? I'd like to say thanks. :) And I love the new blog!