Second Saturday Giveaway: Win a Stained Glass Pendant from Crystal of Pepperdine & Bedford!

Posted by Crystal Pepperdine, Founder and Executive Director of Flint Handmade

Many of you know that I sell my upcycled crafts under the name beautiful JUNK. 

Well, beautiful JUNK is going on hiatus for a while so that I can focus on my newest creative endeavor...

I am excited to announce that my beau and I working together to create a line of fine glass, wood and leather goods to sell on Etsy and at craft shows under the name Pepperdine & Bedford.

Moreover, my beau is now my fiancé!  Russ and I have purchased 10 acres of land in Genesee County and are in the process building a modern, eco-friendly house, where we plan to get married next year.

So, suffice it to say, life has been busy and wonderful these past few months.  :)

And, now, I'm so happy to share all of this wonderful news AND my craftroom with you because I am the featured crafter for our August Second Saturday Giveway!

Special thanks to my future husband for taking the photos of me below.

Tell us about your workspace.

Like many crafters, I have two main workspaces…plus my kitchen table! My craftroom is a small room with two desks.  My computer is on one desk and my sewing machine and sewing supplies on another desk (pictured above).

My sewing machine is a heavy vintage metal beauty and I love the turquoise on the top!  I keep my sewing supplies in a vintage orange Samonsite luggage makeup case.

I also have a 5 x 5 Expedit cubbie from IKEA.  Those of you following our Second Saturday Giveaways probably remember that several of our other featured crafters have the same cubbie!

I have a vintage dressform on one side of my Expedit cubbie.  She has a tag on her decollatage with words Sally Stitch, so I call her Sally. 

Behind Sally is an ironing board with a cute pink paisley cover that my sister gave me for Christmas a couple years ago.

In my basement, I have my stained glass studio. My favorite part about my basement studio is the glass storage crate that my fiancé built for me.

I had an old wooden crate that I used to use to hold record albums. The albums are now on the bottom shelf of a console table in my living room and the record player is on the top shelf.

The crate was just sitting around in my basement, so I asked Russ to add divider slats across the top. He used scrap pieces from a wood pallet and created this awesome glass storage crate which allows me to see all of my glass colors at once!

How did you get into crafting?

I don’t think I have told anyone this, but I remember creating designs with those meltable plastic tubes called Perler Beads when I was in middle school.

I thought my designs were so great that I took them to the office manager of my subdivision clubhouse and asked if she might be willing to sell them from the office since they were far too classy for the yearly neighborhood garage sale! I’m sure she thought I was too precocious by far!

I set my creativity aside throughout high school, college and graduate school to focus on obtaining my degrees, a house, my career...and, of course, my doggie Yasha!

After I earned my Master’s Degree, I realized that I had accomplished all of my major life goals…and I was only 23. I had what you might call a quarterlife crisis and it became apparent quite quickly that I needed to find a new passion to give me meaning, purpose and direction in my life.

My friends at the time were musicians and artists and my creativity blossomed again in this environment. I began giving gifts I made to friends and family. I founded Flint Handmade in 2007 and began selling my crafts under the name beautiful JUNK in 2008.

Now, in 2011, I am so excited to have formed an artisan partnership with my future husband. I am turning 30 in 2012 and I am so excited to be starting this next decade of my life on such a positive foundation.

What is your favorite craft tool/material?

Honestly, I LOVE organization, so I think my favorite “tools” are all of my labeled boxes! I have boxes for everything: buttons, stamps, adhesives, ribbon, bottle caps, etc.

With such a small craftroom, I have to keep everything VERY organized or else it gets messy very quickly.

Another one of my favorite organizing tools is is my wall-mounted coat rack that I use to hold my many tote bags!  Featured above (from l-r) are bags from Handmade Detroit, d'Vine Wines and JoAnn's.

How did you come up with your company name?

My best friend from childhood (AND Flint Handmade volunteer AND local musician AND arts activist), Tunde Olaniran, came up with the name beautiful JUNK for me before I even had any crafts to sell!

He just knew that I liked making thing out of reclaimed materials and thought that would be a good name.

Tunde is pictured above at a music show he did in New York this summer (Photo Credit: Dylan Hess/MTV Iggy)!  Tunde commissioned me to make stained glass necklaces for himself and his backup dancers. 

The MTV Iggy review of Tunde's show specifically metioned my jewelry as "geometric stained-glass bib necklaces....completely to die for." 

How awesome is that!  So, once again, Tunde helped me launch a line of crafts.  :)

Anyway, Pepperdine & Bedford is my last name and my fiance’s last name. We wanted a name that was not specific to any particular type of craft. We are a very creatively generative couple and wanted the ability to sell a variety of goods under one name.

Moreover, we think that Pepperdine & Bedford just sounds classy! We also joke about combining our names into Pepperford or Bedfordine. :)

Our plan is to start with stained glass, which we each learned how to do independently last year before we met. Then, we would like to add wood and leather products to our line of fine handcrafted goods from Michigan.

Pictured above on the black carousel display are some of the stained glass pendants that I have made.  Also shown are my Stabilo marker pens, purple scissors motif notecards and my dry erase markers in a Faygo bottle cut into a pen cup by my good friend, Gwen. 

I'm encouraging her to sell cut glass pen cups and drinking glasses at Flint Handmade events!

What do you listen to/think about/watch while you craft?

I used to watch movies while I crafted, but I have basically given up television shows and movies except while exercising.

Now, I often talk (or sing!) with my fiancé while we work on creative projects together.

One of my favorite activities is to listen to NPR’s American Routes on Michigan Radio on Saturday nights from 8pm-10pm while crafting either by myself or with Russ.  We both love listening to and singing along with old country, Motown and classic rock-and-roll.

(I realize that the above picture has nothing to do with the radio, but I'm proud of the Editor's Choice Blue Ribbon I received for my Upcycling Wrist Pincushion Demo at Maker Faire.  It's pinned to the cork board in my craftroom and I wanted to share a photo with you!)

What projects would you like to work on in the future?

My ideal project for Russ and I to make in the future is a wooden jewelry box with dovetail joints and a stained glass inlay on the lid. I would want to put leather-covered trays inside. I love the idea of combining our creative interests into one handcrafted piece.

I would also like to finish the family quilt that Russ' grandfather entrusted to me.  His grandfather's mother handstitched 12 squares with pink and green flowers. 

I found coordinating pink and green fabric to create the connecting blocks and I plan to complete the quilt in time for the 2011 Flint Festival of Quilts.

Well, I have enjoyed telling you about my workspace and now I'm excited to tell you about the giveaway item this month!

For the August Second Saturday Giveaway, I have donated a stained glass pendant.

It is approximately 2” x 2” at its widest points and is made of two pieces of glass, one green and one white. The solder has been covered with a black patina and finishing compound.

The pendant will also include a black chain (not pictured).

For YOUR chance to win the Stained Glass Pendant (valued at $16), just complete steps A and B:

A) Follow Flint Handmade via the blog, Twitter, Google Reader or whatever newfangled "following application" tickles your fancy. Or, if you don't do the whole following thing, email us at flinthandmade@hotmail.com and we will add you to our email list.

B) Leave us a comment in response to this blog post by 5pm on Saturday, August 20, 2011 answering the following 2 questions:

1) How do you follow Flint Handmade?

2) What types of goods would YOU like to see made out of glass, leather and/or wood?

Please be sure to answer BOTH questions to qualify for the drawing.

The winner will be selected at random and posted on the blog within one week after the deadline. The winner will have 30 days to claim the prize.

We hope to hear from YOU and we hope you enjoyed our August Second Saturday Giveaway!