Vintage jewelry artist JoyAnn Flowers has been creating one-of-a-kind pieces from vintage finds for over 20 years, and her asymmetrical designs have become her trademark. She combines unexpected pieces that have fallen out of favor and lets them live out their full potential with a brand new purpose.
“When I was little,” she remembers, “I loved going through both my grandmother’s jewelry boxes. My grandma would give me stuff that she had, and I would just tinker with it and put it together.”
“I love vintage jewelry because I love the mystery of it, from having lived life before. I just love the story of it,” she says. “That’s how my style started. Even if I make a modern piece, I always put a vintage piece with it, because I like the juxtaposition of having something new with something old. It’s how I decorate my house, and it’s what I wear.”
She sources almost all her materials from estate sales and garage sales, but so many other items come from people who just know she’s the vintage jewelry lady. “People will call me up and say they have a box of their mother’s or grandmother’s old costume jewelry. They say it’s all broken and they’re going to throw it in the garbage otherwise, and I say, ‘No, don’t do that!’” she laughs. “Usually, I’ll end up making them something from that box just as a thank you.”
JoyAnn also loves to browse thrift stores and antique malls to see what she can find, whether it’s close to home or when her family is travelling, and she’s found some really incredible treasures in her searches—pins from Stuart Weitzman and pre–World War II pieces that didn’t get melted down to make ammunition. “If they’re intact, I keep a lot of those pieces, as a collector, but sometimes the pieces are all busted, and I get to give them new life,” says JoyAnn.
Her customers love that they are getting a piece that no one else will ever have. “That’s what I strive to do, even if it’s the same type of style. In my necklaces, I’ll use a brooch that someone gave me, and the person who buys it…it’s theirs. I can’t recreate that.”
JoyAnn has spaces for joyajewelry at the Funky Shack Mercantile in Tyrone and at Kelly and Company Antiques in Fayetteville. She has also been a regular vendor at Peachtree City’s Shakerag Arts and Crafts Festival for 12 years. See more of her pieces at:
FB: joyajewelry | IG: joyajewelrygirl | Web: joyajewelry.square.site
