In anticipation of the Walker’s first Jewelry & Accessory Makers Mart Online, Saturday, May 16 through Sunday, June 14, we’re highlighting some of the 24 local makers and artists whose hand-crafted designs will be featured and available for sale on our website.
Brittany Foster of BMF Jewelry has been inspired by nature since her childhood days when she played in her family’s yard. After studying jewelry-making in classes as a kid and then in college, she built a business making custom projects before moving to a small town near a swamp similar to the one she lived by during her childhood. She describes her work as having elements of both her experiences in the city and the swamp, the architectural and the natural.
What drove you to pursue jewelry making?
I started very young. My mother noticed how I would sit and do beading projects all the time, so I took my first class at age 12. I kept taking classes as often as I could all the way through high school, then I went to college for it. I’ve always been a person who likes making things; jewelry making grabbed me very young, with its tiny hammers and delicate torches. It’s less important to me that I make jewelry then that I make something. I love refining my skills and learning new ones.
What were the early stages of your business like?
My business started in a storm of stress. I was 24, my mother was recently diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s, and my father needed my help taking care of her. So I quit my job and started my business. I did some local shows and picked up some galleries, and I was starting to get into national shows. Then the economy collapsed. I couldn’t travel much for shows anyhow, because of my responsibilities to my mother, and there wasn’t much money going around, so I shifted to custom work. I figured people would still get married. That was business for 10 years.
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BMF Jewelry. Photo courtesy the artist.
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BMF Jewelry. Photo courtesy the artist.
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BMF Jewelry. Photo courtesy the artist.
What do you do when you need to find inspiration?
I walk and I notice things. I do a kind of walking meditation a couple times a day when I walk the dog. I had to learn to stop running through my to-do lists and petty arguments, but now I can just walk and let my mind go quiet. When I’m looking for inspiration I try to make a point of noticing interesting lines and shapes in the forest I usually walk in. I often take pictures and get out my art and nature books to refine the ideas.
What is your favorite part about making jewelry?
I love the built-in challenge of making something that is wearable, comfortable, durable, and interesting to look at all at once. I find that constraints foster creativity in my case. I also enjoy building my skills, jewelry work takes understanding metals and stones with your hands as much as your brain. Feeling how hard to push a bezel around a stone, getting a perfect smooth curve with a hand saw, is all information that lives in my muscles and takes years to develop. I find that process deeply satisfying.
What’s a challenge you faced while pursuing your career and how did you overcome it?
After the dying mother and recession combo I talked about above was over, I found myself adrift. I had been doing custom work for 10 years, and I was tired. My own work hadn’t changed in that time. I had learned a lot, but I had no time to apply it to my ideas and keep paying the rent. I was stuck, and my work and business were feeling dated; everything needed a revamp. When a friend bought a building in a tiny northern town and was looking for a tenant, I saw an opportunity to drastically lower my cost of living (and working) so I could take some time to have a long think about where I was headed. So, I moved to Tower, Minnesota, and started taking apart my business and putting it back together, better. I figured out how to use new tools for inventory and book keeping, I learned how to build my websit and create new logo and cards, and I started exploring a huge set of new ideas for work. I chased down some ideas that didn’t go anywhere, and there’s a bunch of them I’m still chipping away at. But I’m proud of my new work, I feel I have updated my look and my branding is finally becoming a coherent, focused idea.
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