Betsy & Iya Jewelry

I went to see a friend speak at Ignite Portland at the Bagdad Theatre on Thursday night. I was really impressed with her 5 minute story about dating successfully in Portland. Her delivery was ridiculously sharp, her words witty, her presence magnetic. It reminded me of something (a blessing and a plague) that’s been following me since graduate school. Every live show I attend, be it theatre, music, performance art or dance–if it doesn’t grab and hold me tenderly, I will analyze it to a slow, creeping, high-pitched tinnitus-esque death. That’s why I think most theatre I see these days is just boring gratuitous crap. I feel that most often it is just missing the key ingredient, the thing that

ignited live performance in the first place, the thing that without it any meaning or higher purpose becomes futile: to entertain.

(Yes, I have very strong feelings about this). (I wrote a whole thesis about bringing theatre back to the people). (It’s good).

On to my next point:

jewelry.

What? And your point is…? How? What the…?
Yes, when I started

betsy & iya I decided that I would not just dabble in entertainment and consumerism as a pair. Why can’t the two be intertwined, I have asked myself. At the very least, I must entertain myself alone in the studio as I continue to crank out new designs. Part of this is accomplished through writing silly descriptor words when submitting each Etsy.com listing. Part of this has been accomplished through dreaming up wild photo shoot concepts and incorporating them into my new website (which has yet to be released…don’t worry, I’ll let y’all know). And always, I play with the fundamental idea of entertainment when I’m designing new pieces. It’s not a matter of whether it’s appropriate to combine fun and fabulous, sexy and saucy, hilarious and hot; it’s a matter of survival. We women (or men) are more than our sexy facade. I strive to make jewelry that is a reflection of that.

Lately, I’ve created a new line which I think epitomizes the aforementioned idea. It’s called,

Shameless Love.

Some are over the top, some are so mushy they almost tickle your gag reflexes, some are just endearing, but all are humorous to me and all are true or have been true at some point in my life. Most of these are vintage brass. Some of them I oxidize and polish to add even more shameless flair.