10 Year Anniversary + A Giveaway: Week One

Big News! This week marks the 10th Anniversary of Art School Dropout as a brand! EXCITING!!

Ten years ago this week I finally sat down and chose a name for my then very very small hobby like business. At the time I was just selling handmade bags to a local shop in Baltimore called 9th Life, but I had a feeling it could be more. So it needed a name. After a bit of thought, I came up with Art School Dropout, it fit kinda well with my past and with what I wanted to do. I’m glad I chose it!

Pretty soon after choosing a name I started selling in a few online consignment shops which led to a few brick and mortar shops. I started adding jewelry to the list of things I made, and that’s when things started going faster. I had made a few wire wrapped crescent shaped pendant pieces out of vintage flowers and glass beads all by accident while playing around one day. I loved how they were set up, and decided to call them Juxtapose Necklaces. I added them to my brand spanking new shop (pure simple html with some paypal buttons here and there) and talked about them for a brief moment on my livejournal. Within an hour I sold all of them, actually I over sold a few since I wasn’t prepared and just had paypal buttons that didn’t have a quantity, or sold out option. I was ecstatic! I went out and bought some more supplies and made a few more…

Fast forward to now. It’s been 10 years and the brand Art School Dropout has grown to be way more than I ever expected. I have expanded my line of what I make A LOT. I have grown as a crafter and artist. I have been able to travel the United States more than I thought I would in such a short time. I have met some of my favorite people in the world who continue to inspire and support me on a daily basis. It’s all amazing, and I couldn’t have done it without out all of you! When I say you, I mean all the loyal customers and readers, who support handmade and understand it’s worth and that there is a real person behind it all.

So to say thank you, for the next four week I will be hosting a giveaway each Monday. I will choose an item each week that I feel represents the growth of Art School Dropout, items that helped me make it to 10 years!

The first week’s giveaway will be representing the piece of jewelry that sped up Art School Dropout’s growth in the beginning. I made close to 1500 of these things in 10 years! So here we have a Garden Necklace, a piece that is very similar in style to the original Juxtapose Necklace. The later pieces were much larger and had more random pieces in them, you can see a lot of the pieces I made here.

Now here’s the rules:

This giveaway is for ONE garden necklace, specifically the one shown above. The contest starts right this second and ends Friday, May 10 at 8 p.m. EST when comments will be closed. At which time I will choose a random winner from the comments section below using random.org. The winner’s name will be added to this blog post soon after. If the first winner does not reply back to an email sent out within 24 hours, a second winner will be chosen. So please make sure to give your correct email address! Each giveaway item will be shipped out the day the next giveaway starts until the fourth week when it will be shipped out three days later. This weeks giveaway is open to international readers (upcoming weeks may not be due to size, so please keep that in mind)

To enter all you have to do is comment below answering my favorite question…

What is your favorite color combination? (mine’s teal and gray)

I know I’ve used this one before, but I seriously get so much inspiration from all the answers! I can’t wait to read the responses!!

This giveaway happens to coincide with Sew Mama Sew’s biannual giveaway day. So after you’ve entered here, why not stop on by her blog and see what everyone else is offering! Also, if you are a new visitor because of giveaway day, WELCOME!!

If your interested in any of the Juxtapose Necklaces that are available right now, check out the shop!

Oh, and if you would like to keep up to date about the next three giveaways (one a week) why not add us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or follow us on your favorite blog reader! (my favorite is Bloglovin) I will be posting on all of those platforms each time a giveaway starts and right before one ends!!

This giveaway is CLOSED! but keep an eye out all month, because each week we’ll have a new prize to win!!

The winner was comment #92, Amber! whose favorite color combo included leopard! Ha, I love that!!

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Close Ups: Juxtapose Necklaces

Yesterday was absolutely gorgeous! The sun was nice, bright and warm. PERFECT photo weather! Of course I took advantage of it. I now have about two weeks worth of product photos to edit and I couldn’t be happier.

I edited the Juxtapose Necklaces first, because I was excited to see them. I was so happy with the final close up photos that I just had to share some of them! They feel sorta dramatic to me. Kinda personal too. I’m thinking of printing off the top one to hang in my sewing room, as a colorful reminder of where I started.

Fun Fact: One of my favorite things is taking macro or up close photos. I love being able to capture detail that sometimes the naked eye can’t even see. I seriously prefer it over the everyday, real world around me photos. I wonder what that says about me?

If anyone is interested, all of these necklaces have been added to the shop, or were already in the shop but have updated photos now!

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Behind The Scenes: Fragmented Juxtapose Necklaces

It’s been almost a year since the last time I made a Juxtapose Necklace! They were THE item that helped launch Art School Dropout 9 years ago. I have made over 1000 of them!! Yet somehow I hadn’t made any in a year. Craziness. I guess I needed the break.

Well, Yesterday I decided to lug out all of my beading supplies and try my hand at some new necklaces. I had the idea of mixing my original style Juxtapose Necklace with my new Fragmented Necklaces while I was sick. It stewed in my head the entire week!

Apparently I designed the fragmented pieces in the same form as my Juxtapose Necklaces because it was really easy to combine them! I finished about five before running out of wire. I’m hoping to photograph them tomorrow and have them in the shop by the end of this week. I’m excited!

Do you like the new pieces? Are there color combos you would like to see? Feedback is always welcome!!!

 

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