sunday brunch with clare

Me & My Craft Stamp Jewelry is me - Clare Stoker-Ring! I currently live in Brooklyn, NY in a teeny, tiny apartment that I share with my writer husband, two cats, a smelly blind dog and a growing collection of ominous looking tools that I use to design and fabricate jewelry. I am a computer programmer by trade and Stamp jewelry started as a way to decompress. Making jewelry and programming are actually very similar – both have well defined, often limiting, parameters and you have to find creative ways to manipulate the materials (or code) to get the desired result. Both are challenging, often time consuming and frustrating processes, but nothing comes close to the “wow look what I made happen!” feeling I get when I’m looking at a finished product (even though I’m often not quite sure how I made it happen!). Then & Now I have been doing this for almost 3 years and I still find it surprising that I am doing something so creative. As a child I always had my nose in a book, as a teenager I was a sneering Goth, and as an adult I have always worked in a high-stress corporate position. I don’t have any vivid memories of making anything by hand, though my mother is a multi-talented crafter and my grandfather was a carpenter. My latest piece is my Starburst Riveted Ring. Riveting proved to be quite a challenge for me and this design was also the first time I plucked up the courage to hammer my metal - previously I was careful to keep it shiny and dent free. Texturing has provided a new outlet for my imagination, and I am really excited to see what’s next. When & Where I started selling soon after I started making jewelry. I gave a pair of earrings to a friend, she wore them to work and everyone loved them. She said if I made more, she would sell them to her colleagues. She sold 28 pairs in a day and she and my husband encouraged me to start selling my work elsewhere. Of course I thought I’d sell 28 pairs of earrings every day, and of course I didn’t! My work is currently only available through http://stamp.etsy.com. Selling is a full time job in itself and I love that Etsy provides a venue in which I can both sell my work and build my skills and business knowledge. Something that wouldn’t be possible in any other commercial venue. What’s Left Over When I’m not creating jewelry or writing code I can be found eating delicious food and drinking cocktails with my husband, without whose encouragement and support I would be drinking more cocktails and designing less jewelry. I am a member of the EtsyMetal street team (http://www.etsymetal.com), a group of artists whose talent and skills are inspiring me to push my technical and artistic boundaries. My advice to anyone interested in making and selling their art is to always wear safety glasses, pay attention to the details, and find a group of people who both support and challenge you. Events EtsyMetal Trunk Show Friday, April 27 6 - 9pm EtsyLabs 325 Gold Street, 6th Floor Brooklyn, NY 11201 thank you so much Clare! good luck at the EtsyMetal Trunk Show!