Behind the Scenes: What Makes Us Who We Are

Did you ever look at a Buckaroo Bling collection and wonder how it came to be? What influenced our Boss Lady to design it the way she did? Well, today you're in luck, 'cause I'm taking you behind the scenes to show you some things that make Buckaroo Bling tick, and that influence our designs.

The story starts way back, on a different continent, in a small country with a peculiar language, lots of history, and a rich tradition of folk art and craft. You  may only know it from the news reports about the bloody civil war in the 1990's, but our Boss Lady called it her home for the first 20+ years of her life. No wonder Serbian textiles, embroidery, and traditional costume influenced her design style.

After moving to the United States, the Boss Lady became an art student specializing in textile design with a great penchant for hand painting on silk. Needless to say, Asian textiles had a heap of influence on the accessories she made at that time. Close friendships with a few Japanese and Korean ladies only strengthened that sway.

With the textile companies leaving this country in droves, the Boss Lady found herself moving to Alaska and taking up a whole different career. Still, the love of art and other cultures never left her. While living in Southeast Alaska, she befriended much of the local Native population in her small town and was frequently invited to tribal events and celebrations. That's where her love for the Native cultures really blossomed and slowly started finding its way into her work as she apprenticed with a local jeweler.

Over the years, she adopted influences from not only the Alaskan Native cultures but also those of the American Southwest. She discovered that she preferred turquoise over diamonds and copper and silver over gold. She started combining metals and gemstones with leather and using techniques normally reserved for textiles, like knitting and weaving, in her jewelry designs.

There's one influence that remained constant through the years while our Boss Lady's designs were changing: the beauty of nature. No matter where she lived, she always loved sunsets and landscapes, flowers and leaves, and different critters big and small. Even to this day, you can occasionally find some natural shapes and elements in the bling she designs.

Not only that, but Buckaroo Bling supports critter rescue (horses and dogs in particular) with a portion of revenue, but that's a topic for a whole new blog post. If you're curious, you can see a tad more about it here. ⬅️

Now that you know what makes our Boss Lady and her designs tick, won't you look at our bling with different eyes? Take a look at a few of our latest designs below ⬇️ and click the pictures to shop.