All throughout high school, I was hooked on obtaining statement piece jewelry from formidable brands. Everythingv about these little pieces, from the look, to the quality, to even the status it brought encouraged me to dig deeper into my obsession.
When college came around, however, I was forced to take a hard lvook at my spending habits and realized my expenditures were simply not sustainable.
It didn’t take me long to realize I had to establish a budget, and that my spending habits were way out of hand. I would wallow in the fact that I would have to wait years before I could finally afford to resume my collecting.
Not long after school started, however, I attended a little farmers market put on by Creighton where local businesses would sell their products to students. The most captivating table was covered in jewelry unlike what I had seen before. As it turns out, the owner had made them herself.
Before I knew it, I became enamored with little handcrafted earrings and necklaces.
Exploration through The Old Market and all of its stores only bolstered my enthusiasm for jewelry made by local artists, as they were affordable and often one of a kind.
Eventually my appreciation for the locally-made art grew beyond jewelry. My friends and I discovered art galleries with paintings and pictures produced by artists within Omaha.
We began to notice that local art was displayed in the cafes and restaurants we had been visiting as well.
As a result, my friends and I have all begun to cultivate collections of jewelry and wall art from local artists that we genuinely love and can afford. Every weekend we find ourselves with handfuls of interesting and unique pieces we would not have been able to find anywhere else.
My appreciation for local art has now extended beyond Omaha. Everywhere I travel now, I like to try and find farmers markets or art fairs to support small businesses (and my unhealthy obsession with buying things at a good price).
While I now love discovering new forms of local art wherever I go, nothing will quite compare to the art the people in Omaha have to offer.