Gifting Jordin Sparks: A Celebrity Design Challenge

Jordin Sparks Style

A few months ago I was accepted as a member of The Artisan Group otherwise known as TAG.  TAG is a group of artists that take part in the gifting of celebrities at events like the Oscars and The Primetime Emmys.

After finding out that my name had been drawn for the Jordin Sparks gifting, the fun began.  When I volunteered to throw my hat in the ring, I imagined I would be sending  Jordin one of the many gorgeous necklaces I have in stock.  After looking through hundreds of photos on line, it didn't look like Jordin was really a necklace sort of girl.  When she did have a necklace on, it definitely wasn't my big funky organic "hey look at me." style. 

The good news was Jordin seemed to wear big earrings, a plus for me, and lots of bracelets.  Since I have seven bracelets on at all times and a number of holes in my head (well actually my ears), I could handle the bracelet and earrings as a style.  Now that I had decided what I was going to give as a gift I needed to come up with a design.  

I tend to be most creative when there is a deadline, but I can't obsess or all is lost.  One day after reviewing the deadline and looking at more pictures of Jordin, I decided to go for a run.  Seems like the best ideas come to me when I am either running or taking a shower.  When I am totally in the moment and letting the creative energies of the universe flow, the idea will come or so it seems.  So, after the run and shower I went into the Shiva shop and decided to transform some metals into a bracelet for Jordin.

I wanted the bracelet to be big, organic, and contain a mixture of metals.  My work style is to just start cutting out metals and see what comes.  The first bracelet I made was way too big and the riveting wasn't the best. It fit my husband, but was going to fall off of a woman.   By that time I had decided I wanted the earrings similar to the ones in the picture but with the same metals as the bracelet.  I sent pictures of the prototypes off to TAG, got the go ahead and moved onto making Jordin's gift.

Since I usually use eyelets and not rivets,  I got on the internet to once again review riveting.  Seemed my issue was that my holes were too large.  The rivet needed to be a tight squeeze.  Okay, I could handle that.  Also I needed to cut the rivet a bit smaller before I started hammering the back of it.  What a difference the size of hole and length of rivet made.  I finished up the bracelet in no time compared to the first one I made. Oh yeah, I measured this time and made it smaller so it would actually fit.

Now I was onto the matching earrings.   Since I had this design before I thought it would be a snap, but I did manage to have some difficulty getting the wire wrap around the edge to match.  After a few tries, I decided I was being a fanatic and they were close enough.  I also remembered why I don't make these earrings as a production piece.

The final product was packaged and mailed.