“Don’t judge a book by its cover” is a general rule, especially when meeting Louisiana native and University photography junior Ashleigh Shannon.
Shannon recently created her own line of metal jewelry called “Stardust Metals” — the name coming from her admiration of musician David Bowie. The line is a refreshing and eccentric collection that ranges from rosaries and chokers to earrings, bracelets, rings and more.
Shannon said the idea of starting her own line came from ordering her own jewelry. Most of her jewelry kept breaking, and Shannon would have to fix it. Her boyfriend, University alumnus Casey Stallcup, noticed and suggested she begin making her own jewelry.
Last year, Shannon decided to take her hobby to the next level and created her own line when she started making rosaries.
After getting an order for 10 rosaries, she said she felt her skills had improved from making the chains and decided to move on to a wide variety of items and styles.
“My style is all over the place, so I try to make a little bit of everything,” she said.
Shannon picked metal because she loves bending wire, and she also liked the quickness, flexibility and versatility that wire and metals give her.
Most of “Stardust Metals” pieces have some type of gemstone or rock incorporated into them.
“I really like crystals a lot,” Shannon said. “I like the way the light looks when it goes through it, but I do rocks because I’d always liked rocks.”
She advertises her product mainly by word of mouth and on Instagram and said she receives messages from people who are interested and will then ship the product to their addresses. She also does custom orders and receives junk jewelry to give it a twist and does something funky with it.
Most of Shannon’s influence when creating jewelry comes from items she has been in contact with.
“Sometimes I’ll search for things and kind of see a style and morph it to what I have. I’m not going to go order special stuff that they have,” Shannon said. “I’ll make bits and pieces of something and go back to it later and add a little bit more to it and kind of see where it goes.”
The specific type of items that “Stardust Metals” currently has available are slave bracelets, necklaces and rings.
Shannon recently had her first show at Atomic Pop Shop on July 8 where she displayed her products across the stage, while a few local bands such as Jamie and the Fine Divine were playing.
Shannon said she considers “Stardust Metals” as her second job. She is about to start working as a full-time photographer. However, she still concentrates much of her time on creating elaborate pieces for her line.
“It depends on how eccentric I get in it,” Shannon said. “When I was doing the rosaries sometimes I make a necklace where I make the whole chain instead of just adding the chain to it, so that takes a lot longer. When I make the whole chain, it will take, like, 10 hours sometimes to do one piece.”
“Stardust Metals” caters to any type of personality and style, Shannon said. Her products range from $5 to $20, an affordable product with lasting quality for students.

Gallery • 8 Photos

Javier Fernández

LSU photography junior Ashleigh Shannon displays her line of jewelry Stardust Metals at Atomic Pop Shop during the performance of some local bands on Wednesday, July 8, 2015 in Baton Rouge.