I love handmade products. Perhaps it’s the way they are made- by a crafters own hands thus flawed and unique from another that makes it feel so much more special. For some reason when everything is uniform it looks great and disciplined but at the same time it looks mechanically lifeless. With handmade products, each one is an exclusive- that unintended bend, that extra stroke of white on a painted petal, all masterpieces that can never be replicated.
Furthermore from a green girl’s point of view, handmade products tend to have less impact on the environment as opposed to the factory mass produced ones. All in all I’d say handmade products (especially if they are intended for gifts) just won the vote from girlsustainable hands down.
And because handmade is one thing, handmade as inspired by nature is another, I’d like to shine the spotlight on Sue Urquhart, the brilliant artist behind Lulu Bug Jewellery. (She named her business after Lulu Bug, her horsecoat shar-pei that she adopted from the shelter!) I also love her because like me, she loves animals and has lots of pets!
Now it’s fairly common to find artists who tend to focus their jewellery designs on flowers and plants, but Sue Urquhart’s designs are amazing. What sets her apart is her ability to capture nature (in particular birds, dogs, small animals) on Precious Metal Clay (PMC) like a soft sketch. She even does brilliant life like portraits of pets; and all on a tiny little circle or square too!
Every piece is designed and brought to life in her little workshop in her backyard. Here are some pieces from her collection that I think you’ll love (but be forewarned they can be rather pricey with a price range that climbs from USD 30 all the way up USD 83) :
- 1. Chickadee necklace
- 2. Little Chickadee Earrings
- 3. Hand coloured little blue jay necklace
- 4. Little Bird Earrings
- 5. Dutch bunny rabbit necklace
- 6. Little screech owl necklace
- 7. Sea turtle necklace
- 8. Hand coloured bee necklace
- 9. Silver chinchilla necklace
- 10. Hand coloured little hummingbird necklace
Yet I would not say that those are the best works of Sue Urquhart. In fact it would be difficult to identify any one piece to be the best. She even does custom pieces and some of her older pieces are simply divine. If you’re interested to have to look, she has a blog where she shares about how she puts her creativity together.
