Jessie Link has been creating all her life, but recently found a passion in a specific medium: polymer clay. Below is a Q&A with Link about her craft, how she’s inspired for different pieces, and how important creating is to the human spirit.
How long have you been making jewelry?
Growing up my best friend and I tried all sorts of new crafts and hobbies. One was just sculpting little figurines and Christmas ornaments out of polymer clay. Others were making beaded jewelry, friendship bracelets, sewing, random ceramic or painting classes, a smorgasbord of things. In college, I took a wire wrapping jewelry class and started selling wire wrapped jewelry on the side or making them as gifts. I started Elderberry Co in the beginning of 2021. Polymer clay became really popular for jewelry making in 2020 because of the pandemic. People losing their jobs or deciding to work from home. When I started Elderberry Co it was because I had a totally new job with different hours as a metallurgical consultant. It was a new and slower pace than I had been in before. So me starting to play with polymer clay again was not really due to the pandemic, but a shift in day jobs. Elderberry Co is a little over 2 years old now, but I’ve been dabbling with jewelry making my entire life on and off.
Have you always had an interest in jewelry making specifically, or creating in general?
My mom taught me so many different crafts and skills. It’s in my blood. But also I think I’ve been more exposed to all sorts of different mediums and I look at things and think “I can make that!”. I think it’s very important to be creative. It helps reduce stress and if you can do it as a side gig you can make some extra cash. I like making big projects too. Like flipping furniture. Or crocheting bags or blankets. But those things can take a long time. The cool thing about making jewelry is that each piece is small enough that you can make it relatively quickly and then move on to a new piece with a completely different mood or style.
What drew you to working with clay?
My best friend found that polymer clay was becoming very popular again and she suggested we try it with the new techniques. So we found all the tools required to start and just started making and following other artists on social media. Another one of those things like “Hey, I can do that!” or “Let’s try this style!”.
Why specialize in earrings?
Earrings because that’s the jewelry that I like to wear. More often than not, I try to make things that I would wear myself because if no one else likes them, then I’d be stuck with them. Haha I will make necklaces on occasion, but mainly because it’s been requested. I personally rarely wear necklaces. I’ll make hair clips too for the same reason.
How do you get ideas for your designs?
Sometimes it’s a mood. Like if I’ve been extra stressed and frustrated, I find myself wanting to make moody things involving skulls, blood, and darker colors. Or if the weather is amazing and I want something bright and happy, I’ll find pictures of bright flowers that I think I’d like to try to recreate with clay.
Sometimes I don’t have a concept in mind and I scroll through Pinterest looking for inspiration. I find a lot of inspiration from nail designs. I try really hard not to look to much at other polymer clay earrings because I want to do something original.
Where and how did you learn?
There’s SOOOOOOO many polymer
clay tutorials on youtube. I watched a lot of those in the beginning of 2021. Then I started following a bunch of clay artists on Instagram. Makers will show how they make things using reels or little videos. Trial and error after that really. One of my favorite clay artists told me once, “It’s basically an artist’s birthright to be cringe af.” If you’re making something and it looks bad at first, GOOD. Now do it again and it’ll look better. If you like the task, keep doing it and practicing and don’t worry too much about if you think it looks bad. Just do it again and make improvements.
How have you grown as an artist since you started?
In the beginning, it really was about mimicking techniques and styles to see what I was good at. I still don’t think I have a very specific aesthetic, but I do try to develop my own techniques and shapes now. A lot of polymer clay earrings on the market are just
clay rolled flat and then cut out with a tiny cookie cutter that someone else designed and made. I do a little of that still, but to me, that’s someone else’s design punched into clay. Now I try to sculpt things and use cutters that are very basic just altering the final product. I also am more conscious about the hardware I use now. I try to use high quality metal, chains, and wire in my pieces so they don’t tarnish as fast or so people with metal sensitivities can wear them.
When do you work on your creations? How do you find time?
In the summer it has been really hard because of all the summer activities. But during other times of the year I find myself playing with clay after everyone else in my house has
gone to bed. I call it my witching hours. No one is around needing my attention. I can listen to what I WANT to listen to. It’s nice. Another aspect of making and selling jewelry is promoting it. I need to find time to photograph each piece and upload it to my websites like Etsy and Instagram. That kind of stuff is best on the weekends during the day when there is good lighting.
What do you do full time? How does that support and/or interfere with your creating?
I’m a consulting metallurgist and lab manager at a metallurgical lab in Winnemucca. We support many mines in the area and around the world with test work to best extract metals from ore like gold, silver, copper, nickel, cobalt, and rare earths. We’ve grown so much at the lab this last year, that it has been increasingly harder to find time to create with polymer clay. I don’t think it really supports the creating process except by providing inspiration or “moods”.
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Link makes her home in northern Nevada with her husband Mike, and daughter. Her creations can be found on Etsy under ElderberryCoBoutique
