Local woman’s homemade cicada jewelry giving CSRA the ‘love bug’
GROVETOWN, Ga. (WJBF) – A CSRA woman has been getting a lot of praise for her interesting hobby.
Artist Briana Alley has been doing art since she was a child, and recently, she’s looked to nature for inspiration on her latest project.
“I was video taping, and I was zoomed in super close to these cicadas. When I was doing them, the wings looked like fairy wings to me, and when I started looking at some of the deceased ones, I wanted to take a shot at doing some of their stained glass wings and making them enchanted looking,” said Alley.
Alley was inspired.
“I started picking them up, and some of their wings were already off, which is the factor that gave me that idea. I didn’t already want to rip them off. I just saw the wings on the ground, picked them up, and just started painting on them, and they just turned out really pretty.”
Alley described her entire process: “I wash them first, I sanitized them, we remove them, flatten them so they can keep their shape better, and after I’m done painting them, or putting color tinted resin in them, I put them in the UV lamp, and they harden up so we can put the hooks on them then.”
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Excited about her work, Alley posted pictures on social media.
“I was just showing them off because I thought they were really neat. I did not expect anyone to actually want them, but I started getting tons of messages from my friends that wanted to get them, and I had this idea since there’s a ton of them and maybe I can do more, I posted that same picture on the Columbia county website, and all of a sudden, I was getting messages, text messages, and phone calls for orders. I’m like, ‘Wow, everyone likes this.'”
Alley has even made earrings based on other trends.
“These right here are the aurora borealis ones, which I did after seeing the northern light colors the other night.”
Briana Alley’s cicada jewelry journey has been an interesting one and she’s thankful for all of the support.
“It’s amazing honestly. These are my little enchanted wings, and I absolutely love the response. Everyone has been on board with it, even my family, and my kids helped me out with it as well. I don’t think I could have asked for a better response.”
If you wish to contact Briana you can reach her on social media.
Here’s a brief, sped up video showing Briana’s process:
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