Etsy Twitter Team: SOTW

This week we have the nature inspired artist Jessica or “Smu” from Smutopia as our Shop Of The Week.

She designs necklaces, pendants, rings, earrings, bracelets and charms for the woman who wants her jewelry to reflect her unique style and her love of nature.

She spends a great deal of time searching out unique materials to use in her jewelry. One of her favorite sources for fossils and interesting stones are the gem and mineral shows she attends. She also uses wire recycled from a cable manufacturer to add an eco-friendly element to her jewelry.

Jessica suggests that new Twitter users spend some time learning about #hashtags and how to use them. That way users who share an interest in your topic can find your tweets, even if they are not following you!

If she had 1M dollars and had to give it all away, she would pay her parents back for which she is eternally grateful for their contribution to her college education. After that, she says she would donate the rest to DonorsChoose.org to help fund classroom projects at high poverty schools and to Water.org to help fund clean water initiatives across the globe

She says Ansell Adams (a girl after my own heart) tops her list of favorite artists. The stark natural beauty of his work captures her interest while stirring up her love for nature.

While Jessica is a self taught jewelry artist, her mother, who has always fostered her creativity and encouraged her love of crafting and creating is the most influential person in her craft. Growing up in rural Vermont has fostered an abiding love for nature that consistently shows up in her designs.

You might be surprised to know that Jessica has held a human brain in her hands as part of an event at the University of Vermont called “Symposium on the Brain”. She was absolutely fascinated and went on to major in Biology.

She says that if she could live anywhere in the world except where she currently is, she would live on the Outer Banks of North Carolina from January to November then Vermont (where she grew up and her family still lives) for the month of December. She says that she loves the Outer Banks and would treasure the opportunity to live on the beach, but when it comes to a picture-perfect Christmas, Vermont is the place to be.

Finally, we asked her if she were stranded on a deserted island with plenty of food and water, what three things would she have to have? She said, “Electricity, a computer and internet access. Maybe that’s cheating, but with those things I could amuse myself indefinitely, order whatever else I wanted and communicate with the outside world without ever leaving my island paradise!”