Meet Emily Elizabeth

Today we’d like to introduce you to Emily Elizabeth.

Hi Emily, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory. 
I think deep down, I always wanted to be an artist. Looking back, I just naturally found myself on that path. Growing up I was a well-rounded gal living on the east coast in Northern Vermont. Being an only child, I always wanted to be around my friends. My friends and I would always find ourselves playing dress up, being creative, taking photos, making home movies, playing in the woods and rivers, playing sports, going to school dances etc. Growing up in the early 2000s definitely inspired who I am today, but my favorite classes were always in the art wing in high school. I can remember loving my pottery, printmaking, and photography classes. My high school had a great art department back then, and we even had a dark room, which was one of my favorite places to create in. I think that dark room really inspired my way as an artist. 

After high school, I was called to go to JWU for fashion merchandising in Providence, RI. A part of my heart will always be in that city. Love you, Wickenden St! I lived there from the ages of 17-19, and that’s when I truly started to find myself. I was just a little baby back then. Partying and falling in love with hockey boys and electronic music right before I decided to move out West to California for photography school. In fashion class, I remember doing a project and going through fashion magazines. I was just so in love with the photos. “I want to be a fashion photographer,” I thought to myself. 

Cue Santa Barbara and Brooks Institute of Photography. It was 2009, and I was 19 going on 20. I fell head over heels for the California lifestyle. Photo school was pretty intense, so naturally, I became an artsy party girl. I hit the ground running when it came to the West Coast music festival scene and partook in every party favor that sounded fun. Even though I partied hard I still did my best in school and still found other creative outlets. That’s when I started making feather jewelry for the first time and made it a little side hustle. I would sell feather earrings to my friends, renegade sell at festivals, and had my first wholesale account in Miami through a friend when I was only 20 years old. 

Photo school and living in Santa Barbara was such a wild time in my life. My best friends and I still call it the “rockstar years.” I am so grateful for the three years I had at Brooks Institute. It truly was such a special time for me as an artist in my early 20s. I even had the opportunity to live in Paris for my last semester for Paris Fashion Week, which was such a dream. I ended up graduating in the spring of 2012 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and a lot of psychedelic experiences. 😉 

After graduation, I followed my heart to Oakland which really started to shape my crystal jewelry. The Bay Area is where I got more into vending my art and fell into vending the music festival scene. It was such a blast and what my brand was built off of. I would sell my photo prints, feather, and crystal jewelry and travel around the state, hustling my art at some of the biggest and wildest parties. My favorite to this day is Lightning in Bottle Music Festival. I have been going for the last 11 years, and I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for that festival and community. 

In between the festivals and vending events, I was hustling my photography services as best I could and still had random day jobs like serving tables and 5 am shifts as a barista. I only stayed in the Bay for about a year and then found myself back down south, where I landed in Ventura. I wanted my own place, and I wanted to focus on my jewelry design/photography. I must have been about 24 years old when I found a small low-income studio apt and called it my own. That trashy studio apt held me. It helped me find my way as an artist and was where I started copper electro-forming my jewelry for the first time. I started researching the craft online and then magically came to find my friend’s mom, Terry Henry, was an electro former. She gave me a crash course on the craft maybe only one or two times, and then I was on my own. I fell in love with the alchemy process and how it took my jewels and brand to the next level. 

That’s when everything changed. I wasn’t just an artist anymore. I became an alchemist. A creatrix. A witch. I began working with copper and crystals more intentionally. I would design crystal jewelry and dip them in an acid bath where I could plate them in copper. Even though I have always been a multifaceted artist, my copper electro-formed jewelry is what I’m most known for today and is a craft I now teach. 

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It’s been such wild ride. The ups and downs as a female artist is raw and real. Since I was a young girl, I always felt misunderstood and emotional. Anxiety and depression have always been something I have had to work through. In my early 20’s, I was put on medication for about 5 years. Back then, I was just trying to party and get high and didn’t know not to mix my antidepressants and Benzos with psychedelics, which landed me in jail and the psych ward two separate times. Sorry mom! 

Once I started to learn more about myself and my habits, I became a little more reserved and stopped taking pharmaceuticals altogether, as well as LSD. 

Even though my 20s were rocky and risky, I still kept on my path. I wasn’t able to go full-time with my art until about 2015. I quit my serving job back then and just trusted my art could get me to where I wanted to go. I found myself collaborating wherever I could. I curated my own photography gallery show, got some little publications along the way, and kept working on my jewelry. 

Photography services are something I have always offered, but photography has been the one art form I struggle with imposter syndrome. Even after going to school and getting a BFA in photography, I still had so much fear around being a photographer. It’s always a thing that comes up in my artistry, but I have been really working through it lately and feel more confident today. Looking back at my photo work makes me really proud. Even when all the self-doubt comes flooding back, I just have to remember how far my art has come. My photography has been published in a book of artwork, a tarot deck, and was even presented at the Louvre once. Even with these big wins, imposter syndrome seems to always be lingering in my scorpionic shadows. 

Jewelry-wise, I think I felt more in control. I didn’t need anyone else but myself to make jewelry verses photography where I needed models and clients to make art. Jewelry felt more like a peaceful solitude. At the time, all I needed were my crystals and a vision. Later I learned the challenges of being an entrepreneur artist. Wearing all the hats in the business, learning my audience, how to advertise and learning how to use social media over the last 12 years. 

Besides, the imposter syndrome, mental health struggles and the self-deprecating comparison social media now brings to the table, I think the hardest part for me was feeling financially stable as an artist. I never felt like I was doing enough and was always wondering where my next client or sale would come from. 

Currently, though, the most challenging thing I have been going through in myself, art, and business is a phase we like to call the void. It’s a phase in between death and rebirth. It’s uncomfortable and a place that makes you face yourself and everything you have done up to this point. I have been working so hard, hustling my art for the last 14 years, that I inevitably became so burnt out and have become forced to take a break. For the last 7 months, I have been deep in the void. The void makes it so unbearably weird and boring that something new must come through. Thankfully, some new things have sprouted from my long, uncomfortable months swimming through the void, and I think this is a phase that all artists must go through to evolve and grow. 

Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m a multi-passionate artist and focus mainly on jewelry design, professional photography, and selling vintage clothing. I am most known for my brand called Free Feather and my copper electro-formed crystal jewelry. I fell in love with this craft in 2014 and it has been my main love ever since. It’s been such a beautiful evolution to see my jewelry transform over the years, and it is a reflection of my personal growth. 

My jewelry is intentionally made with reclaimed copper and ethically selected crystals and gemstones. Each piece is one of a kind and made specifically for whoever finds it. My jewelry isn’t just an accessory; it’s medicinal. It’s armor. It’s art. It’s magic! Copper electro-forming has become a lifestyle and is something I am now proud to say that I teach online. The Alchemist’s Path: An online journey into the art of copper electro-forming is a self-paced course that I created a couple of years ago and currently have it open for enrollment on my website. 

When it comes to my photography, I specialize in portraiture, fashion, lifestyle, boudoir, and even do weddings for friends. What I truly love to photograph, though, is women and capturing their divine feminine essence. It has been such an honor working with women from all walks of life. Making art with and for women truly lights me up. Some of my most proud photography work has been of women and has been published in a photography book and a tarot deck. Having my art in a tarot deck is still such a dream! You can find two of my photos as the Hermit card and Three of Cups card in the late Serpent Fire Tarot deck called, She Wolfe. 

Risk-taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
I’m risky baby! I always have been, and I think I always will, but in a Scorpionic and Saturnian way. With a dash of Sagittarius influence. If you know, you know. I think successful and interesting people are always taking risks in one way or another. If you’ve been paying attention, then you know I love experimenting. 😉 Whether it’s with people, art, experiences, or substances. Experimenting and risk-taking go hand in hand. -You never know unless you go- comes to mind. Are you going to stay at home wondering or are you going to go explore? In my 20’s I was certainly taking risks that I don’t need to take now in my 30’s, but I’m always up for taking some kind of calculated risks these days! 

Entrepreneurship in the arts has been one of the hardest but most rewarding decisions of my life, and it’s seemingly all been risky. It has been the deepest inner work and a long journey of finding myself and believing in myself. So much Relearning, deprogramming, and even reparenting along the way. Being an artist is a vulnerable path as it is, but making it a business and sharing my passions has been even more vulnerable. I’m someone who tends to learn the hard way. I like to experience things and have a kind of “fvck around and find out” kind of mindset. Investing so much into my business and myself has always been a risk, but so far, it’s been pretty rewarding, and I don’t have any regrets. 

Pricing:

• Jewelry $45-$350
• Photography $299-$6k+
• Vintage $5-300

Contact Info:

• Website: www.free-feather.com
• Instagram: @freefeather

Image Credits
Skykidone
Michelle
Siobhan
Karolina
Mackenzee Ashlii
Jasper
Nicole