Try Handmade

Shopping blog featuring products made by people not factories.

Kickin’ It In Riverside, CA

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Today I’m taking you to Riverside, California, hometown of Landon Donovan, mid-fielder for the U.S. Soccer Team. As you should know, the U.S. lost in a stunning defeat to Ghana, 2-1. I feel badly for the players because they’re not getting a lot of support, instead criticism is flying from every direction. Frankly, I’m more upset about the un-sportsman-like behavior of the commentators, owners, and media than I am about the loss itself. Oh well, we can still celebrate Donovan’s hometown with these handmade finds.

Ruthie Padro specializes in creating unique jewelry with using Swarovski crystals, charms, and handmade miniatures. She’s been creating and crafting since she was a child and, like many people, very thankful that Etsy gives her an outlet to showcase her designs. The Alice’s Teacup Necklace is her signature piece, but she also customizes the classic Dr. Scholl’s flip-flops.

ShellRose has been an artist for over twenty years, and she has done a number of large-scale murals, and window displays. She works with watercolor, acrylic, and other media. She uses nature to inspire her creations, and sometimes infuses an element of the magical into her pieces. This painting is titled “Just Treading Water”, and as the artist says, to move forward, we must first open our eyes! You can see her creative process and how she created this painting below.

In-vita Paper Studio is a one-girl stationery design studio located in sunny southern California. The owner and creator lived in Russia for two years where she taught Art in a High School. I love that she says her passion is stationery design, as I am a believer in the art of letter writing. In-Vita Paper Studio is also eco-friendly, using only FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified, which is my favorite way to make green paper choices. For the luxe white cardstock,100% recycled content with 30% PCW (post-consumer waste) is used. 


I picked this particular design because I wanted our American Soccer Team to know that we are all very proud of them, and they should be proud as well.

Organize Your Pretties: Jewelry Displays

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I find that one of the most difficult things to organize is my never-ending pile of jewelry. A jewelry box is functional, however, I have found that openly displaying your jewelry can be even more beautiful and can even serve as a piece of artwork within your home.

The handmade jewelry organizer pictured above is from a wonderful shop called BlueBirdHeaven based in Louisville, Kentucky. The artist, Jessica, is a sustainable architectural designer who is the original creator of these jewelry displays made from vintage printer’s drawers. She is passionate about finding ways to reuse the distinctive and beautiful things that surround us. Visit her shop to see all of the different colors and styles available to fit any decorating scheme.

This whimsical little butterfly jewelry display can be found at Hook and Line. The idea for the artist’s designs came from her daughter’s growing love for jewelry and the need for a place to store it all. You can display all sorts of earrings styles on this simple picture frame style organizer. What I love about pieces like this is that you can see all of your earrings at once, so it makes selecting a pair that matches your outfit incredibly simple. No more digging through jewelry boxes, no more searching for that missing earring.

This last jewelry display helps you to organize not only your earrings, but your necklaces as well! Frank and Marla of New Dimension Wood Design have a jewelry display line called Jewelry Holders For You where they specialize in their one of a kind, elegant displays suitable for home use or in a boutique setting. Frank is a professional wood craftsman with forty years of architectural woodworking experience and creates truly beautiful works of art.

Find these and many other jewelry display ideas online, or have fun coming up with your own unique designs! As always, feel free to share your ideas with us!

language & meaning designworks

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language & meaning designworks: I’ve been mesmerized by paper for as long as I can remember. I can’t tell you how many portfolios of paper I have…well, actually, I can since they’re right next to me, but I digress.

I started doing fine art collages in college. Inspired by Hannah Hoch and her Dadaist counterparts, I enjoyed playing around with a mix of found images and objects, advertising cut-outs and text and found that I was drawn to their interplay. Really, I suppose you could take it all the way back to when my sister and I would cut out words, fashions and famous people from magazines and make huge poster board displays for our rooms. Luckily for everyone, I won’t be making any homages to the Cure or Benneton any time soon..

I never could wrap my brain around large-scale projects. Instructors were always telling me to step back from my projects for perspective, telling me “you’re too close to that canvas;” guess I was trying to make something big, small. Instead, I opted to create vignettes that (I hoped) had a Joseph Cornell vibe to them. Small seemed intimate, personal; a window into a certain feeling.

I take the same care with my cards, invitations and other paper crafts. I like to think of them as tiny works of art. I LOVE paper! I see ideas in those sheets but I’m not gonna lie, not everything I make is a hug from Jesus. You won’t see any of my design step-children here; only the best for you peeps!

I’m a total and complete art history nerd: modern and contemporary art/photography and mid-century architecture/furnishings. The weirdest thing about me is the way I eat ice cream from the carton – it’s gotta be scraped in a flat, level pattern or all is no bueno in this house! Currently in grad school for my MFA and loving life with my husband, the company of good friends and MAKING STUFF.