{"id":43768,"date":"2016-02-08T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-02-08T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uncommongoods.pro\/?p=43768"},"modified":"2018-01-03T16:13:55","modified_gmt":"2018-01-03T21:13:55","slug":"this-just-in-spiration-meet-suzie-thomas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.pro\/blog\/2016\/this-just-in-spiration-meet-suzie-thomas\/","title":{"rendered":"This Just In-Spiration: Meet Suzie Thomas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Suzie<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Our makers never fail to motivate us, encourage our creativity, and fill us with inspiration. So, when a new design<\/a> enters our assortment, we\u2019re always excited to learn more about the people behind the product.<\/p>\n

What gets an artist going and keeps them creating is certainly worth sharing, and every great connection starts with a simple introduction. Meet Suzie Thomas<\/a>, the artist behind our new Shades of Blue Sea Glass Necklace<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Shades<\/a>When did you know you wanted to be an artist?\u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>
\nI was on a summer road trip with a couple of friends in the Southwest during my college years. We stopped while driving through Monument Valley<\/a> at a roadside souvenir stand.\u00a0 There was the most amazing assortment of beautiful and vibrant beaded jewelry being sold. Native American artists who made the jewelry were sitting behind their beautiful and very detailed jewelry making more.\u00a0 At that moment I thought, \u201cI could be happy doing that for the rest of my life.\u201d\u00a0 Although I went on to graduate college and pursued a marketing career, I continued to create and sell jewelry in my spare time.<\/p>\n

What was the most exciting thing about becoming a professional artist?<\/strong>
\nHands down, feedback from people when I am selling at shows.\u00a0 I love hearing about what my jewelry reminds people of or how it makes them feel.\u00a0 I am inspired and fulfilled by their comments.\u00a0 It\u2019s exhilarating.<\/p>\n

\"Shades<\/a>
\nWhat does your typical day in the studio look like?<\/strong>
\nFull disclosure: my studio right now isn\u2019t so much a studio as it is \u00bc of my husband\u2019s man-cave.\u00a0 I recently moved my workstation in from the garage because it was getting too cold.\u00a0 However, if I don\u2019t start my day at the beach searching for sea glass, I start by checking my online shop and my social media channels. I turn on some music and move into creative mode, which involves me dumping entire collections of sea glass on my desk so I can sort and arrange.\u00a0 It gets quite messy during the designing part of the process.\u00a0 When I\u2019m through designing, I clean everything up so I can begin drilling and chaining.<\/p>\n

\"Shades<\/a>
\nIs there a trinket, talisman, or other inspirational object you keep near? If so, what is it and what does it mean to you?<\/strong>
\nI keep my dad\u2019s 1970\u2019s blue Murano glass<\/a> ashtray in front of me when I am working and when I am not working I keep it on my bedside table. It looks like a curling wave.\u00a0 I love that ashtray. My dad used to store his spare change in it, which paid for countless gumball machine purchases. I was so happy when he gave it to me after college.\u00a0 I even bring the ashtray to shows to display necklaces on it and for good luck. It reminds me of a few things: how awesome my dad is, my happy childhood, and the calming ocean.<\/p>\n

\"Shades<\/a>
\nImagine you just showed your work to a\u00a0kindergartner\u00a0for the first time. What do you think they would say?<\/strong>
\n\u201cOoooh pretty, can I have it?\u201d I sought feedback before I launched my business from some of the younger sisters of my son\u2019s friends.\u00a0\u00a0 Kids are honest and they know instantly if they like something visually or not.\u00a0 I knew if children liked what I made, I was on to something.<\/p>\n

What quote or mantra keeps you motivated?<\/strong>
\n\u201cSuccess is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.\u201d ~Maya Angelou<\/a>
\nThis quote keeps me centered. It reminds me to be true to myself and not only create things that I really like, but to make sure I enjoy the process.<\/p>\n

\"Get<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In college, Suzie Thomas encountered Native American artists making and selling beautiful jewelry and realized that was what she wanted to do, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":44053,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[743],"tags":[2076,508,1535],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43768"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43768"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43768\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44928,"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43768\/revisions\/44928"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}