Jewelle Best has a love affair with glitter. It is one she readily admits.
If you check her Instagram page, Glitter Artistry, you will see several items she has made during the last “couple of months” which highlight her love for the tiny pieces of sparkly material used in decorations and growing love for craft.
The teacher by day and carpenter by night told BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY that craft is a new-found talent, developed when she started teaching young children.
“Every occasion is an opportunity to do craft, so that’s something that came from then, and then, I just started to do something on my own – as gifts. I always start my things as gifts, a trial run and then I use the feedback that people give me and go from there. I then try to improve on something I did before.
“I love to do anything with craft. It isn’t limited to wooden décor. I do photo boards and anything with my hands. I can make basically anything. On Instagram, I saw people doing things and I thought the quality could be a lot better.
So I decided to try my hand at it and see how it could come out and I found I was able to produce something that in my opinion was of better quality. I believe that if somebody is paying for something it should be the best quality that it can be.
“I do wooden monograms, photo boards. At first, I was into making mononyms – personalised pillows, and just last night I made some loot boxes. I made a nice birthday ribbon.
I can make flowers that people are using for backdrops. So, basically, anything that is craft wise I can do and I like to use glitter hence the name ‘glitter boss’ which I use for my personal IG page and Glitter Artistry for my professional page,” Best said.
Each item is made to order, based on customers’ requests as they are personalised and, depending on what it is, can take three to five days, unless Best is at home the entire day then she can make it in one day.
The length of time Best spends on each item is deliberate, she explained, because she will not compromise on quality. She also said that sometimes she likes to see how things look in natural night compared to the lighting from the bulbs in the workshop.
Yes, she dons her safety gear and heads to her father Joseph Best’s Christ Church workshop to make the wooden pieces.
“I do everything except cut the wood,” she said, noting that her dad does that. She added that if she has a lot of work, her mum would assist.
Wooden monograms are trending and are the most requested item whether letters, numbers, entire names, with crowns, images, painted, unpainted or with glitter. It is not limited to children, as adults are requesting them too, for parties, gifts for any occasion or to have in their homes.
While she likes making them, Best said her “heart lies with the photo boards”.
“I like to conceptualise what a photo board will look like.
I think it’s more than just sticking pictures on a board. I like to take a theme and conceptualise it, bring it to life. I like it to tell a story.”
She often researches likely trends so she can stay ahead of the others in the business and offer it to prospective clients. For example, handmade birthday pins, flower backdrops and loot bags and boxes are in style now
as are personalised water bottles.
Her co-workers and her principal are “very accommodating”, “supportive” and “encouraging”. From January, she said she has been teaching art to the nursery students which she loves to do.
She emphasised how much she likes teaching so she has no plans of leaving the profession but if she has her way, she would start to make and sell wooden toys for the nursery aged students, offer personalised wooden puzzles and photo frames.
“I would like to integrate learning into wooden toys . . . . If I could expand and make toys for schools I would like that. When we go to stores or when someone comes to the school selling things they don’t always have what we want. So, if I could make something, a manipulative that someone specifically wants for a particular age range to teach a particular skill that would be good for me.” (GBM)
