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."

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.