The "Kimberly", my latest design, is a modification of the earring you see immediately below. This is a listing I originally called the "Diamond Top with fringe". The color scheme is from the "Montana Collection". I had a customer, (you might have guessed her name was Kimberly) contact me who had admired these earrings but she wanted something that was 5 1/2 inches long. She had taken the measurement from a pair of earrings she already owned, and liking the length she asked me if I could modify the length of this earring for her. She was interested in having it in this same color scheme as well as a couple of other pairs in some additional colors.
The final result of the first custom order I did for her in the Montana Collection is as follows. I actually like it better then the original design above, prior to the modifications. This custom order has inspired me to actually modify the earring above when I get a chance, in order to clean the look of it up a little more.
Here is another slight modification to the new "Kimberly" in that there are no bugle beads in the following, but it is still the same earring. These were a lot of fun. She had sent me a photograph of a skirt with a striped color scheme she really liked and wondered if I could do an earring with a similar kind of look. She said the colors did not have to match the skirt necessarily, but she liked the overall concept of the striped look in many multi colors. She also requested a change to the pattern on the diamond top for some variety. I had a lot of fun with this one.
This earring reminds me of gypsy skirts, quilting and country kitchen folk art.
What I really love about doing custom orders like this, is that these are combinations of color that I would have never thought of myself. My own personal design tastes tend to be a lot more celestial, earthy or mystical with regard to color. Doing custom orders for other people really gets me out of my box, and forces me to see things much differently then I would normally, if left to my own devices.
It's true that an artist's work is never finished. Almost all of the earrings I make I contemplate over and over again and wonder how I could have done it differently, could it have been better had I changed the colors around... what would it look like if I did this instead of that.
Here is another little pair of earrings I did for a client a couple of years ago to match her green fresh water pearl and bead necklace that she already had. This earring is my short A-line style. There were no modification requests to this in terms of style. What was wanted was a color scheme combination. Style and length remained the same.
This pair is an example of a request I was hesitant to do at first. When she told me the colors of the necklace before I actually saw it, I didn't have a lot of confidence that I could make something that would actually look decent or even match what she had. It sounded a bit garish to me at first. But when she brought me the necklace and I had a better idea of a visual to work off of, I realized that we could in fact come up with something that would work very nicely. I was really pleased with these. I was pleased that I was pleased, precisely because I had not expected to be pleased and that made the satisfaction even more pronounced when the project was finished. I wish I had had the presence of mind to photograph the necklace but I didn't think of it at the time.
The beauty of doing custom work for customers is that my customer whether they know it or not are really very creative. Not only creative but inspiring, in that these orders give me an opportunity to constantly try and improve my repertoire of designs while keeping an open mind about the work that I do.
Custom orders are sometimes very challenging because I dont' always get a precise request. I'll get a request, but then some customers want to leave a lot of room for play, for me to insert my own design ideas into them. That sort of freedom within a custom order can be both comforting or frustrating, depending on the request. Sometimes I become very attached to the things I think would look better especially when I consider the "branding": of my work. Sometimes, the lack of precision in a request requires an enormous amount of communication back and forth and possibly a few different versions made before one is decided upon. I encourage my customers never to hesitate to let me know if the final product is not what they had envisioned. I do not mind doing orders over a few times within reason to make sure that my clients get exactly what they want, and I don't want them to feel obligated to something that they didn't actually like as well as they thought they would all said and done. So I'm always open to modifications. I don't always expect a custom order to be right after the first try. Seeing something in your mind and then seeing an actual product can sometimes be two different things. Without the contrasts to gauge against, it can be difficult to be sure you are getting what your really want.
If you are interested in any custom work, please feel free to contact me. You are welcome to browse through my etsy store and see the different designs that are already available. It's usually nice to have a baseline idea to start from. If you have a request, and are an etsy member, feel free to "convo" me regarding your order request. If you are not an etsy member, simply email me. I accept pay pal either through the etsy store, or privately through email invoice transactions. I also accept money orders by snail mail.
Blessed Be!
Monique Lockhart
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