Interview: Carolyn Buss, Seattle Area Jewelry Maker

Seattle's Up-and-coming Talent Muses About Future Endeavors, Jewelry Styles, and Her Experiences Making Jewelry Professionally

Carolyn Buss is a twenty year old jewelry maker living in the greater Seattle area. Buss, who has held interest in jewelry making since age five, is a generally creative individual. Her talents extend to other art forms and creative writing. Buss specializes in beaded and wrapped jewelry. The self-professed workaholic now runs her own part-time business making and selling jewelry at markets, craft fairs, and online.

Q: How did you get started in making jewelry?

A: I started making jewelry when I was very little probably 5, or even before that maybe. I remember one of the first pieces I made. It was a little clay ghost thing I made in elementary school for Halloween. In high school, I realized that there was a jewelry class available to me and I was a little tentative thinking that it would be all beads and nothing too exciting, but it was totally the best thing ever! I learned a lot from my teacher.

I also worked for a woman for a year making wire wrapped and beaded jewelry. I learned a lot in doing that, but I also learned that people aren't what they usually seem to be.

Q: Who or what inspires you?

A: The stones and the beads inspire me, or sometimes I think about time periods, like the renaissance era. And like I said before, I worked for a woman who had really simple stuff but it sold for whatever reason. Most of it really wasn't that cute but it was marketed to older ladies who liked flashy big expensive jewelry.

Q: What types of jewelry have you made upon request?

A: I used to do a lot of the custom work for the woman I worked for. I used to have to "invent" matching earrings to go with necklaces that she hadn't made a matching earring to, or one time she and I designed a necklace to match a specific earring; that was hard to do.

But, other than that, my friend and mentor asked me to create some beaded bracelets so that she could keep track of her weight watcher's points. That was neat, I probably make like 5 or 6 of them. And for the same person I have made a few pieces that have stone settings and soldering and such, like a ring and a bracelet.

Q: What is the most unusual piece you have made?