Carrie Bilbo

Cicadas, spiders and branches may be the norm in nature, but not in precious jewelry. Don’t tell that to maverick artist Carrie Bilbo, who creates hand-made rings, bracelets and necklaces inspired by Earth’s wonders. Carrie’s unusual designs, like her silver and brass cicada wing pendants, add a sophisticated edge to any wearer. Get your own piece of Carrie’s world at her Etsy shop and learn more about the artist with her 10 ANSWERS below.

1. How would you describe your work in three words?
Organic & Expressive Art.

2. Who is your creative role model?
I would not say I have one creative role model. It’s more like time periods/genres that are my role models. Like the German/Austrian Expressionist movement and the Art Nouveau movement. Artists like Schiele, Klimt, Mucha, and Lalique. I also love more modern artists like Louise Bourgeois and Roxy Paine.

3. If you had an extra hour each day what would you do with it?
Well I would like to say ideally take some time for myself, go to a movie, spend time with friends, paint, but in reality if I had an extra hour I would probably just squeeze more work and tasks in the day.

4. What place in the world most inspires you and why?
Everything around me inspires me… from nature to the city to insects to relationships to psychology to art. So in that aspect it is very hard to pick just one place. Traveling is also one of my favorite things to do… so I have been a lot of places, but last summer I traveled to Prague and Vienna. Those two cities I found extremely inspiring, which was no surprise, since my two favorite areas in art both occurred there.

5. If you could do a different job for a day what would it be and why?
I would probably be either a CSI agent or a surgeon. I know way different from the life I have now, but I am so addicted to medical/surgery and investigation shows.

6. What is your favorite homemade gift to give?
Jewelry is an obvious one. If I had an unlimited supply of money when it comes to jewelry, I would make my friends and family jewelry all the time. I also love to cook and bake. So my favorite, in reality, gift to give is food… I make a killer pumpkin bread.

7. What is your favorite object in your home?
My computer… I know this sounds like a lame answer, but it is only because I would not consider my dog an object and I have everything on my computer. I am a big photo and music person as well and I have all my music and pictures on there.

8. What is the best advice you’ve ever received?
To never stop making things and creating work. It doesn’t matter what your making, once you stop its so much harder to get going again.

9. What websites do you use for inspiration?
I don’t really blog or anything. So I don’t really search out inspiration from them, occasionally I will just stumble upon it though. I would rather gain inspiration from books and the things I see in my own life around me. Although two blogs, of people I know, that I do think are pretty cool are the-twentyten.blogspot.com and ihearttopstitch.wordpress.com.

10. When do you consider a piece of your work complete?
That’s a hard thing to explain. A lot of times with my jewelry I know exactly what I want it to look like as a finished piece from the beginning, so when it reaches that point it is done. Most of the time though, things change and evolve as I work on them. I work on several pieces at once, so I often put things aside for a while to think about them, or just avoid them for a little until I know where I am going with it. As for finished though, it is just a feeling I guess, intuition. I stop working on it when I feel it is complete… it just happens.