Monday, March 5, 2012

Wired for freedom


**Whether it's the freedom to express yourself, freedom from your past, or helping to set others free. Everyone has the desire to be free, wired deep within them.**


"I am wired for freedom and this is MY story. I didn’t always see myself as free… for 13 years I struggled with self-harm. No matter how hard I tried to escape it or find other ways to express myself, I failed. I felt worthless, ugly, crazy, and alone. How could anyone understand or relate to hurting themselves? I made the idea and the concept up in my head… no one out there is this insane. This is the lie I believed for 13 years, until one night I did the unthinkable…. 

I told my story to a high school girl. Moments later my life was forever changed. Self-harm was her struggle! The next year I met another high school girl with the same story and then another and I finally realized I have a story to tell. So I told it. I began to open up and the more and more I did, the more young girls I met with the same struggle. No longer did I feel alone, but it wasn't enough to make me stop. I needed more… I needed an outlet to express myself. Some place I could go when everything was falling apart, somethingfor my hands to keep me busy. I didn’t know what that was, but God
did- and his timing was perfect.My business wired for freedom started with my grandma teaching me to crochet, I fell in love with it. Not only did I learn patience, but I learned to embrace trial and error. I started crocheting for a fundraiser, which turned out great but it wasn’t enough for me. Crocheting is seasonal, I needed more! What else could I get do to keep my hands busy? Again God’s timing was perfect. I found myself at a camp for abused children working as a counselor. Little did I know the trip would change my life.
 There I picked up this plastic wire art and the first night I had a vision, God showed me I was to make a ring that said “loved”. I saw every loop, bend, crimp, I needed to do in order to form this word. The next morning I tried it out… and well let’s just say it was a huge hit. I ended up making rings for almost every girl.
 When I returned home I decided to pursue it more, but where would I even start… this idea is coming from my imagination. I started to make different pieces and wear them- people began to ask me where I bought it. It felt so good that people wanted my creations, I felt valuable. It wasn’t long after that people I didn’t know were placing orders. But, being the perfectionist that I am I wanted to stop, it would never be good enough, I just started at 22, this could never turn into something big. HA! God was probably laughing at me, because I had no idea what was going to come of this, but he did. 

As I started on this journey, I was reminded of my freshman year at church camp when this pastor called me out in the crowd and told me one day I would own my own business. As you can imagine I laughed, because this girl knows nothing about business, hates math, and isn’t good enough in anything to make a business from it. But with this gift beginning to blossom I thought, this can’t be a coincidence...so I went for it. My uncle and I came up with a name: Wired for Freedom and soon I started to tag everything with “wf.” 

The adventure continues today. I finally found my niche, my outlet to express myself. Through this, the once scared girl who wouldn’t dare tell her story to anyone, now shares it nearly every day. And more and more I meet people sharing the same struggle. Wired for freedom allows me to use my hands to create instead of destroy. No one wants to be trapped behind their struggle, but many are… I stand here today and tell you that we ALL are wired for freedom, and I hope you too find yours."

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Lily Flower Vintage is on a mission to search out lost and forgotten treasures and bring them back into rotation.  Scavenging at swap meets, flea markets, garage sales and thrift shops, founder Lily Braverman unearths jewelry pieces and tchotchkes with promise, revamping and recombining them to form new and current accessories.

Based in a desire to utilize resources we already have as opposed to fabricating new things, Lily Flower Vintage jewelry always features second-hand focal elements.  In addition to being eco-friendly, each one-of-a-kind piece carries its own history, hearkening back to stylistic moments of the past.


With a wide variety of important style movements contributing components, Lily Flower Vintage has a unique piece to suit every personality.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Cause2be




"Hi! My name is Cinthia Granadino and I am the driving force that is Cause2be. Cause2be was born from my love to create. I grew up with a very artistic father who always encouraged me to express myself through art.
My admiration for fashion has always been a part of my life and I naturally became a fashion design student once in college. I worked as a visual merchandiser and was always inspired by the clothing and jewelry around me. I finally decided to put my ideas into action and start creating jewelry and accessories about a year ago. Friends and family have been a driving force for me to pursue this as not just a hobby but as a vocation. In my effort to be earth friendly I try to use salvaged materials whenever possible for the trinkets I create. I buy from swap meets, flea markets, garage sales and sometimes take apart my own jewelry to construct pieces to sell. I take used/vintage jewelry to make new pieces. I'm a big supporter of all DIY'ers like myself and truly appreciate all that time and effort that goes into our passion. "
"I'm very excited to share my creations with you and hope you love my items as much as I love making them!"

Aside from Rumble Scheme, you can find me on:

Twitter: Causetobe
Etsy: http://cause2be.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/Cause2be
Zibbet: http://www.zibbet.com/Cause2be

Monday, February 6, 2012

Le Modern Trinket

About Le Modern Trinket


Christina Sanchez, owner and energy behind Le Modern Trinket, started her company in December of 2009. Inspired by art, vintage items and photography she decided to self teach incorporating things in which she loves.


 








Heavily influenced by the 18th century – 19th century era, Art Deco, the Dada and Bauhaus art movements and by artists including Kurt Schwitters, Marcel Duchamp, Robert Rauschenberg and Hannah Hoch, Christina began to up-cycle found objects into unique wearable pieces of art. Making jewelry as a hobby soon changed when the owners of Gallery 212 saw some of her pieces and soon she had her first handmade show that she organized at Gallery 212 in March 2010 called “The Modern Tchotchkes”. 


Outgrowing her space and needing a studio, Christina converted her garage into a work space. She has since shown at various handmade shows like Patchwork Indie Arts & Crafts Festival, Handmade Brigade of Orange County, Roots Roadhouse at the Echoplex, many gallery openings, art events and organized handmade fairs like the first A.C.E Art Crawl Experience handmade show. She also does commission pieces in which many of her clients will give her their family mementos in which she calls “Memento Art”.



Not every piece is derived from jewelry. Christina Sanchez utilizes things like vintage photographs, tintype photos, radio resistors, vacuum tubes, capacitors, photo flash cubes, watch parts, door henge’s, cabinet locks, rosaries, Bakelite Mahjong tiles and matryoshka dolls. What first began as making earrings evolved to making necklaces, pendants, rings, brooches, hair accessories, customizing necklaces, bracelets and most recent cuff links. She’s also started to dabble in housewares with making magnets.