About Mellie Earrings

Each pair of Mellie Earrings is lovingly handcrafted in Sweden by me, Mellie.

I have always been a creative person, and have dabbled in painting, knitting, sewing, drawing, and various other arts and crafts. I even made some wire beaded jewelry in high school, but all the hobbies I took up would only seem to engage me for a short period of time, revisiting them infrequently. As an anxious person, creativity helps me live more in the moment and get out of my head a little. As a person with sensory processing sensitivity, having a tactile hobby that takes concentration and hand-eye coordination helps me ground.

I, like the rest of the world, had a dramatically different year in 2020. I downloaded TikTok during quarantine (as one does) and gradually found polymer clay TikTok. I was so inspired by the process time lapses and beautiful slabs people were making that I decided to order a few colors of clay, some simple cutters and a roller to give it a go myself. My first pieces were pretty awful compared to what I make now, but they still weren’t bad! I loved the process and kept going, quickly filling up my jewelry box until it was overflowing with earrings.

Nothing has ever clicked for me creatively like making polymer clay jewelry. Rolling and cutting the clay is almost like baking – I mean, it is baking, you just don’t eat it at the end! I’ve loved to cook since my early 20s and it brings me joy in the same way. I love mixing the colors by hand and trying out new shapes, patterns and techniques. Sanding the edges down after baking, sealing them with a glossy finish, drilling holes, the delicate handiwork of plying open and shut jump rings – it’s all such a satisfying process. I love incorporating beads and fastenings from other jewelry I’ve repurposed – especially from my grandmother and great grandmother’s costume jewelry stash! 

The metal in my pieces is brass. The silver look is rhodium-plated, which is nickel-free, as are the raw brass pendants and metal pieces I use. The gold look is gold-plated brass, which may contain trace amounts of nickel (up to 5% according to the metal supplier), which is used underneath the gold plating to make it last longer. If you have any allergy to nickel, please opt for a raw brass or rhodium-plated brass option. If a pair you love is in gold-plated brass but you have a nickel allergy, let me know and I can swap out the hardware for raw brass instead.

Each piece is unique and made spontaneously in the moment. I never plan out what I’m going to make before I sit down. I let the colors inspire me, or I design something around a fastening or bead I have in mind. I have also made pieces for specific people who inspire me in my life. From time to time, I will cut multiple iterations of a similar style, but no two pairs will ever be identical. For that reason, there is only one pair available for most of the styles in the shop. I put a lot of love into each pair I create, and I hope that your Mellie Earrings make you feel as beautiful as you are, inside and out.