Happy New Year! Wow, 2012 is really here, and to all of our customers, thank you for a great 2011!

Throughout the year, there are always many special occasions. Birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, commemorative events and many holidays. It can be a real challenge to pick out just the right gift for someone.   If you would like to give a unique gift, but don’t know what to choose, try a Pickwear Cash Gift Certificate!  Your lucky recipient can then select the exact item that matches their style from a wide variety of unique hand crafted designs. They can be purchased in $25./$50./$100. amounts.

To commemorate the 21st anniversary of the tragic passing of Stevie Ray Vaughan,  August 27th,

Pickwear Jewelry humbly presents a tribute to remember all that was lost. We will never forget you Stevie.

Click here to view our video: Stevie Ray Vaughan Tribute

Willie Nelson-The inspiration for the creation of Pickwear.

Although he doesn’t know it, the legendary and all around great guy, Willie Nelson was the inspiration for Pickwear jewelry.  It all started with a bottle of whiskey.  Yes, a little taste of whiskey has probably been the inspiration for a lot of things, but jewelry?  Well, this bottle just happened to have a Willie Nelson guitar pick hanging from it, which my brilliant spouse Vicky snatched out of my hands very quickly.  I was planning to use it for it’s designed purpose…that is, pickin’ on a guitar.  Of course, she had other plans.

The next thing I knew, there she was, standing there wearing one of her handmade beaded necklaces with that pick as the pendant.  How cool, I said.  I want one too! (and a good excuse for buying another bottle of that whiskey also).

So we bought another bottle of that whiskey, I browsed through all of her supplies to pick out the components for my necklace.  Within days, all of our friends and neighbors wanted one….a couple of strangers on the street too.  That’s when I started thinking (a very dangerous time) hmmm.  I wonder….

Not too long after that, a guy who is friends with Willie’s road manager came into Vicky’s place of employment and handed her a Willie Nelson guitar pick.  Well, it doesn’t take a ton of bricks to fall on my head….this is definitely a sign.

So we started talking about these coincidences, and decided that maybe we should think about making a bunch of these babies since everyone was so interested in having one.   We sat down one evening and put our heads together, and started creating some different designs.  Of course, we’ve never been the types to do things half way, and the ideas began streaming out of us like we were possessed.  One idea led to another, and then another, and the next thing you know we’re talking about making guitar picks out of silver to go along with the traditional celluloid picks we started out with.  Leather, beaded, leather and beads, on and on.  What we ended up with was about 20 different designs and styles, and ideas for a bunch more.

Those friends of ours told us ‘you just have to sell these….they’re fantastic”.  Well, to make a long story short, we put together about 100 pieces, got us a spot at the SXSW Music and Film Festival here in Austin (one of the largest events of the year here) and set up a booth.  I can tell you, we were nervous as can be, not knowing if anyone would like our stuff….and much to our delight and surprise, the response was more than we dared to hope for.

From a nicely dressed film executive out of LA who purchased three pieces, to members of a Punk Rock band from London, and everyone in between, we were swamped with visitors and wonderful compliments.  Wow, what a relief.

The greatest thing (besides the sales of course : ) was the 500 business cards that literally flew from our table.  It seemed like every person that walked by stopped and took a card.  Unfortunately, we were just starting out (our first event) and didn’t have a website, so we did lose a grand marketing opportunity.  But everyone has to start somewhere, and that’s where we started.

Now, we’re up and running on this great big world of the internet, and looking forward to creating new designs and making our cool guitar pick jewelry available worldwide.

Thanks for the inspiration Willie.

PS: The background image of Willie Nelson in the photo is a small print from the original artwork painted by Mr. William K. Stidham.  We had the pleasure of meeting Bill at one of the shows we both attended last year.  And it was kind of spooky that Bill’s booth was right next to ours given the larger than life sized painting of Willie was one of the main visuals of his booth.  There seems to be an endless number of these little signs we keep receiving!  Coincidence?  I think not.

Anyway, over the two day show we got to know Bill just a bit, and what a really nice guy he is as well as a fabulously talented artist.  So I would encourage everyone to check out Bill’s art.  His work is amazing!