Interview with Valorie Clifton of Artisan Originals

Over the course of the last few weeks I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know Valorie Clifton of Artisan Originals.  Valorie was nominated to be a featured artist by Loren McCraney of Fruits of the Bloom through Meylah’s fan page on Facebook.

Loren made such a lovely introduction to Valorie that I can’t resist but share: "Valorie does so many OOAK (One of a Kind) unique vintage meets very modern chic jewels, she does bead weaving, wire wrapping, there’s nothing she can’t do!  I look forward to each and every listing she displays, they’re so special and lovingly made by a woman with real passion for her art!  Not only is she a talent, she’s a kind and generous human being—can’t go wrong with featuring such an amazing woman!  She deserves recognition."

Get to know Valorie first hand in our interview below.  I promise you will be entertained and that you will want to meet her personally by the time you’ve finished reading!

Meylah: Tell us a little about yourself & about your creative passions.
Valorie: My greatest accomplishment in this life is my family.  I married my high school sweetheart 18 years ago and we have been happy ever since!  We have two wonderful children, ages 12 and 14.  They are my reason for living and the reason for all that I do.  One of the major motivators for my new business is the hope that one day I will be able to work from home and be with my family more often.   I look at it as combining three hobbies:  art, business, and family time!

I've always been involved in one craft or another for as long as I can remember.  I learned to crochet at the age of seven and I used to entertain the neighbors by sitting in a little rocking chair on my front porch and crocheting little blankets.   I come from a family of artisans.  My mother paints portraits and murals, my brother does wood crafts, and I paint and take pictures and make pretty things with beads and metal. I have done cross stitching, embroidery, crocheting, knitting, netting (my uncle showed me how to mend fishing nets), lacework, quilting, sewing in general (doll clothes, baby blankets, dresses), knot work, macramé, plastic canvas crafts, fabric painting, paper quilling, scrapbooking, you name it!  I also like digital painting, photo manipulations, pencil sketching, and photography.  Jewelry seems like a new and exciting challenge.

Before last year, I had only done loom work with beads.  I am actually still learning many of the beading stitches.    For me, beadwork is just a natural extension of sewing and embroidery.  Learning is the fun part!  The whole process of creating jewelry is fascinating and rewarding.  Who knew I could make pretty things that would please others besides just myself?   I am also in the process of learning chainmail jewelry techniques and wire wrapping.  There are so many new, interesting ways to go with jewelry!  I laughingly tell my friends I have jewelry ADD.  I'm so easily distracted by something I see that I have to start a new project.  I currently have 4 or 5 projects all going at once.  I bounce around like a spring between them.

Meylah: How did you get started selling your jewelry (both online and offline)?
Valorie: I have been a member of the Deviantart community for a while and have made many friends among the artisans there.  My primary craft was always digital art.  I made friends with several artists who also happened to make jewelry.  I started making jewelry to display on the website because the praise is so gratifying.  I'm easy to please. One of my DA friends had a link to her Etsy shop in her signature line.  I was curious and decided to check out the website one day.  My friends there encouraged me to try selling my jewelry.  I actually started on eBay and my first listing sold right away but for a ridiculously low price.  That's when I decided to try Etsy.  Etsy sales are really slow for me but my friends tell me that my time will come eventually.  I have more success offline with selling my pieces to coworkers and family.  I even sold a few pieces to people I met through a video game!

Meylah: Where do you buy your supplies?
Valorie: Oh, shopping!  I love it so much!  I do have my favorite retailers.  I buy some of my bead caps and findings from other Etsy sellers.  I found a great shop named Bella's Beads and More where I buy all my brass findings.  My twitter friend and fellow Etsy seller, Bead Frenz sells the prettiest gemstone beads.  I'm a huge fan of (don't laugh) the bead section at Wal-Mart.  I'm the Wal-Mart queen!  I like to get some of my glass beads there.

I love online retailers and I purchase a lot of my supplies from them.  For Swarovski crystals, I exclusively use Fusionbeads.  I also buy my gemstone chip beads there.  Love them!  They have free shipping with no minimum order.  My ultimate favorite, the shop I love the most, my biggest joy to shop, is Monsterslayer.  They sell anything you can think of! I buy all my wire from them, most of my gemstones, all of my copper bead caps and beads, all of my sterling findings and beads, my clasps, oh wow I love them so much!  Their prices are fabulous!  No, I'm not affiliated with them in any way, I swear.

Meylah: You are active on Twitter, Facebook, and now your new blog, Artisan Originals.  Do you feel drawn to one social media outlet over another?
Valorie: I really like Facebook.  I use it like a business home base.  I direct clients to my fan page with my business cards and my Etsy shop is the landing page people see.  I have had such great luck with meeting other artists.  It's a great community.

However, I have to say that Twitter is my very favorite networking tool.  I'm an incessant chatterbox and Twitter fulfills my interaction needs.  I have met such lovely, supportive, artistic people there that I would never have met otherwise.  They encourage me when I'm feeling down, they boost my morale and tweet about my products, and I have the privilege of meeting talented women just like me who have families and jobs and a creative spirit.  I actually forget to promote my shop because I'm too busy chattering away with my friends.

Meylah: What resources do you look to for inspiration?
Valorie: I am inspired by music and books and things I see in magazines.  Seeing what other people create inspires me to try my own version. I like to browse tutorial sites and learn new techniques.  Sometimes learning a new stitch gives me ideas for things to make using that stitch.  Sometimes I get random thoughts in my head while making a piece.  I keep an idea notebook where I draw quick sketches of ideas so that I won't forget them.  Many times the bead inspires me.  I will pick out random things with no real pattern in mind and the idea forms as I create.  That's what happened with my Ice Queen necklace.  I just added to it until I was satisfied.  I have been known to arrange and rearrange beads until a pleasing pattern forms.  I also make small samples of stitching to test bead compatibility.  Sometimes you buy a group of beads and realize halfway through a project that they don't go together as well as you'd like.

Meylah: What advice do you have for people balancing a full time job with a creative business?
Valorie: My business is relatively new and I'm learning as I go.  The only caveat I can give is to keep it fun.  Creativity can easily become a chore if you stress over it too much.  When I first started trying to sell on Etsy, I stressed so much over my lack of sales.  I was frustrated with the networking.  It seemed that no matter how much I marketed my jewelry, nothing was happening.  My hobby had become work and I was ready to give up.  Then I realized that I was enjoying the creative process and learning all the new techniques.  I decided to love what I do and eventually the sales will follow.  One day the right client will stumble upon my jewelry.  I just have to find my target market and never give up!

Meylah: If you had a free day with no work and no computer or jewelry supplies, what would you do?
Valorie: Oh that's easy!  I would either go shopping with the kids or we would go to the movies.  Movies are our favorite pastime.   We live in a very small town and there is nothing to do other than shop and watch movies.  It's a great treat for us and we enjoy it very much.  We like to have movie nights too!  I make popcorn and brownies and we kick back and watch whatever the kids want to watch. It is very important for me to balance work, business, and family life.  Family always comes first in my home.