UP CLOSE & PERSONAL: An Interview with Felicity Stiverson of Wish by Felicity

New in the store are necklaces from Wish by Felicity, a brand of handcrafted jewelry made right here in New York City. Recently, we had the opportunity to speak with the designer, Felicity Stiverson about the history behind her vintage-inspired pieces. (She's wearing one in the above photo.) Read the interview after the jump!

FLYING A: So when did you get started making jewelry?

FELICITY STIVERSON: I started when I was growing up but then I started again seriously about 5 years ago. I’m an actor and dancer, too - I do musical theater but on my downtime from doing that, [making jewelry] is another creative outlet.

FA: These are so cute!

STIVERSON: They’re all made with vintage tags & keys. A lot of the tags that I use are called vintage trade tokens. They were used around the turn of the century by general stores and pubs...you’ll find them from all different places around the US

FA: What era would you say the tags come from?

STIVERSON:  The early 1900s usually from around the 1890s to 1940s. So this was before, refrigerated trucking started and [before] people started moving around the country. You shopped in your town and everything was very local...a lot of times [on the tags] you'll find something like, "good for 5 cents at the bar" or "good for 20 cents of milk."

FA: That’s really cool.

STIVERSON: I have some that are called picker checks. [They] were similar vintage tags but were used by farmers...they would pay their workers with these little tags. Each one is stamped with the initial of the farmer, and how many bushels of a crop that [the farmhands] picked. The shape of the tokens [signified a crop]--for example, a scalloped edge was for strawberries. 

FA: How did you come up with the idea? And well I’m sure you can’t tell me how you sourced these. 

STIVERSON: Well, actually I can! I’d been making jewelry with the vintage tags for a while and [when] I went home last year my father, a historian, asked if I'd ever heard of picker checks. He had this guy...his history connection, who had this huge source of picker checks and he told me the story [behind them]. He actually has a history of who the farmers are based on their initials.  

FA: I love that each piece has such a back story. You're owning a piece of something special.

STIVERSON: A piece of history.

To snag your own piece of rural, agricultural history, purchase a necklace from Wish by Felicity at our online store or at our brick & mortar in Soho.