Mother Daughter duo and their Creative Chaos

Jordan Garlick is one half of Chaos and Karma, one half of the brains, one half of the creativity, the other half you ask? That’s her Mother, Helen McBurnie. Together, the duo are a creative force to be reckoned with.

What started out as a hobby, Jordan and Helen worked on creating sculptures and artworks which led soon enough to weekend market trips selling their work. A few years passed and the time came for the duo to step outside of their comfort zone and open their own shop. “It was something we both always wanted to do, have our own shop full of our art, sculptures and earrings,” said Jordan.

Since opening the shop the girls’ creativity hasn’t wavered; just recently upskilling to create the latest trend, polymer clay earrings.

“I have about 1000 pairs of earrings, so I thought I’ll make my own,” Jordan smiled. “I love making the clay earrings as they are all very unique and It’s not so repetitive. Mum actually got me the clay for Christmas last year and that’s what sparked the obsession! The clay took me a while to figure out, there are a lot of aspects to it like how long to cook it for, how thick to make it - don’t get me wrong there were a lot of fails - but that’s how I’m successful with them today.”

In the handmade world Jordan and Helen’s handywork is making headway. Hand-carved out of polymer clay, the jewellery range come in all sorts of colour and shape combinations.

Jordan added, “Depending on how much detail is put onto each pair, it may take me around 15 minutes per earring. The other earrings, like the cowhide studs can be very fiddly and take a lot longer.

“I use Instagram and Pinterest to get the creativity flowing, I tend to draw a lot of inspiration from there but what’s in my head at the time is usually the design I go with.”

“I’d like to think I’ve always been a very creative person though It’s definitely genetic, I get it from Mum. We both share the creativity though Mum is the brains behind it all, she is always looking for new ways to improve and we bounce ideas off each other all the time. There’s a lot of back and forth between Mum and I.”

Helen added, “We have a close relationship and we work really well together; we are very similar in most aspects and what one lacks the other picks up.”

“My creativity comes in waves,” Jordan explained, “I think any creative person would know, you’ve got to be in the right mood. For me, I get most of my work done here at work, but my art like my drawings is mostly at home, that’s where the music gets turned right up and I completely zone out.

“Our old dining table is covered in creative chaos and somehow the art and earring stuff slowly creeps across to the other table every now and then, then it takes over the entire loungeroom,” Jordan laughed.

“For me, the artwork is a longer process, most of the drawings are done in lead pencil and can take  months, some works might even sit there and I’ll come back in six months’ time and continue on, though it is my favourite as its more personal.

“Most people are quite surprised when they find out that it’s us that makes the jewellery and the artwork, I think they just assume because we are a shop we get them in from suppliers. Recently we have noticed a lot of visitors from out of town really get behind us to support a country area, it has been really positive which is great.”

Anyone who appreciates the beauty of handmade objects will adore Jordan and Helens jewellery and artwork range. Check it out for yourself snippets can be found on Instagram at Chaos and Karma Orange.