One Loopy Knitter: What Inspires You: An Interview with Still Tree.

1. Please tell us a little bit about what you do.

"Hello! I'm Sal, the founder and designer behind Still Tree, creating unique feather jewellery with a modern, quirky edge and clean design. With an architect as a father and a mother who taught me how to tailor as a child, I think it was fairly likely that I end up in the art world and I cemented that path studying Photography at university in the UK. Whilst I continue to love and work in photography, I set up Still Tree about two and a half years ago as a bit of a part-time project (jeez, time flies!), but as time went on and orders came in, it became a pretty much full time endeavour and I now find myself as the proud (and very busy) owner of an independent handmade business. "

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2. Your earrings read as very high fashion to me; the work emphasizes art through shape, form, pattern, texture, color, etc. I'm very interested in learning about your design process: how do you build each piece?

"When I create designs, I like to make sure that the items are well thought out, will be functional and durable and most importantly, unique. I love working with feathers, they're an incredible organic form and I find the colours, shapes and patterns really inspiring. To some extent, the feathers determine elements of the design, in their shape, curvature and colour - I spend hours painstakingly making up pairs and experimenting which feathers will work well and sit perfectly together. When it comes to the final design though, rather than just using the natural beauty of the feathers as the main focal point of a piece, I prefer to start with a shape or pattern in mind, and use the feathers as more of a medium, like you would fabric for example, by shaping, layering, dying, etc., to create something that compliments both organic form of the feathers, whilst being in itself a design. "

Leaf Shaped Feather Earrings

3. Keeping our work fresh means constantly seeking new sources of inspiration. Where do you look to find it and/ or what kinds of sources most inspire you?

"So many things! Every day life tends to spark a lot of ideas for me, and living in Amsterdam is great for that, with endless flower stalls, that make amazing colour palettes, the unique architecture that creates such interesting lines and shapes, and of course, the completely eclectic fashion walking up and down every street! Etsy and the internet obviously factor in there as well. Some of my favourite designers are the lovely Iveth at The Angry Weather (www.etsy.com/shop/theangryweather), who makes such fun, beautiful jewellery (I love crisp, clean design like hers), Broken Fingers Art (www.etsy.com/shop/BrokenFingersArt?ref=ss_profile), whose colours are awesome, and RASKL Design Group (raskl.co.uk/ ), close friends of mine, who make absolutely stunning furniture. Thinking about it, I do probably spend more time than I should jumping around different blogs, photography and design sites, but I love the ability to just stumble across an awesome designer or artist so easily."