Guest Post - Ramshackle Studio

Hi!   We’re excited about guest blogging for Love My Art Jewelry Today.  I (Amber) guess I’ll start by introducing us... We are Ramshackle Studio (aka Amber and Joelle).  We make handmade jewelry and accessories of wood with accents of stone, metal, resin, or whatever else we find that we like.  Each of our pieces is one of a kind... we love that no two pieces of wood are ever the same and I guess we decided they all deserve their own place to shine.  

As we were going back in forth in the car about what we should write about for our guest post, I realized that one of the things that makes us unique is that there’s two of us.  Every piece of jewelry we create has been in some way touched by each of us, so I thought I’d write a bit about collaboration.  

The old adage that ‘Two heads are better than one’ describes us perfectly.  While we both had our own creative endeavors before, it wasn’t until we started thinking together that we found something that we both truly love and excel at.  We each have our own roles in the studio, our own space at the work bench, but without the constant feedback and input we give each other, none of our work would be what it is.  One of us needs to be reminded that odd numbers are good, one of us hates hand sanding, one of us can’t be bothered to check her email, one of us is scared of using color, neither of us particularly like dealing with people in person, one of us sucks at following through on an idea, one of us is all focus.  I can’t imagine either of us doing this on our own, but together, we balance... we look and nod and say, “add another circle, use the red wood, finish your sanding, call it a day”, and that’s what makes it work.

We’re really excited about our lockets right now, and they are a perfect example.  If you listened to us talk about them in person you’d think it was a competition (and maybe it is  a little).  We bicker and tease back and forth about who had what idea first, but we both know they wouldn’t exist without both of us.  We challenge each other and that makes the work better.

I realize that art is traditionally kind of a solitary endeavor, and we take the concept of collaboration to the extreme, but we would encourage anyone to make room for some kind of partnership in their artistic journey.  Find someone with a similar aesthetic who uses a different material and come up with a way to make something together, make friends on flickr and give feedback and encouragement, join a team of like-minded individuals to share ideas.  Step outside of your personal space and allow yourself to be challenged... We promise you’ll be pleased with the results.   


You can find the very talented duo at Ramshackle Studio over here www.ramshacklestudio.etsy.com and here www.ramshacklestudio.tumblr.com