We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Shelby O’Banion a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Shelby, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?
I decided to start crafting with polymer clay during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic and I taught myself by trial and error. I had fun playing around with a lot of earring shapes and designs, I started to make TikToks of the process, and eventually I started selling them! I had a lot of success and failure while trying to figure out how to make these earrings. But, because of that I have come up with a really good process that works for me.
Looking back now I wish I would have found articles or forums that discussed polymer clay tips/tricks, I could’ve saved myself a lot of clay (and money!) in the beginning.
I think that the most essential skills when crafting are attention to detail, patience, and persistence. It is easy to get discouraged when you make a mistake or “fail” but you must stay patient and keep going.
The biggest obstacle that did and still stands in my way of learning more about making earrings is my time commitment to college. I am in my junior year of college pursuing a BS in Mechanical Engineering and I find myself having to juggle a lot during the school semester.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am Shelby O’Banion and I create and sell polymer clay earrings! I have always enjoyed being creative and doing crafts so when I was stuck at home during the start of the Covid-19 pandemic I knew that I wanted to pick up a hobby and naturally it was going to be crafty. Polymer clay was not a typical item that I used when crafting so I was really intrigued, and I wanted to see what I could do with it. Now, I make all sorts of fun, cute, lightweight earrings.
What sets me apart from other earring creators is the quality, price, and personal touches that you get when you buy from SO.Clay Earrings. I am most proud of the fact that I have my earrings being worn by women all around the nation.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
The most rewarding aspect of making earrings is the feedback that I get from my customers. There is nothing more rewarding than hearing that someone loves what you’ve created! I also find it rewarding to say that I have women wearing my earrings in 10+ states, how cool is that?
Have you ever had to pivot?
Like I said, I started during a global pandemic which meant I was always at home and I had more time to dedicate myself to SO.Clay Earrings. I was doing college, but my classes were all online which gave me a lot more freedom. When life started to go back to “normal” I started class in person again and the course load became heavier, that’s when I had to pivot and change my routine and way of fulfilling orders. Managing school and my business was difficult at first but now it has become easy. I have noticed that when orders come through, it is no longer hard for me to work it into my daily schedule, and I get really excited when I can take a break from school and create earrings. No matter what life throws at me I will make it work because I love what I do and I am very passionate about the earrings that I create!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.etsy.com/shop/SOClayEarrings
- Instagram: @so.clayy
- Other: TikTok @so.clayy