violet's buds

Melanie Gipson is the owner and creator of Violet's Buds. She designs fabulous hair flowers and hair accessories for children, adults and newborn photography props. She began designing hair accessories when her daughter was six months old, and after purchasing several headbands and clips for her daughter she decided to take the plunge to attempt designing her own. As a new mom, she learned creating can be very therapeutic - and also, she loved gifting her creations to other friends with babies!

After much encouragement from friends and family, Melanie chose the business name Violet's Buds - a name which has a double meaning, one, for the lovely flower buds of a violet, and two, their daughter Violet's best baby friends, her buds! - and started selling through Facebook and word of mouth. Now Melanie has a booming Etsy shop, a blog and uses her Facebook page to market her business and promote other indie designers and shop owners! Melanie's hair accessory shop stands apart from other's because of her stellar product photos - Melanie has a bachelor's degree in photography, specializing in portraiture. She does all her own product photography as well as the photography for her husband's shop. Melanie has branched from just hair accessories to photography props and children's dress up accessories for imaginative play.

Melanie's accessories are unique in that most of the supplies Melanie uses is remnants or upcycled from clothing or linens. Beads, pendants and buttons Melanie uses comes from old or broken costume jewelry, old clothing, or is purchased second hand rather than new, reducing pollution and waste that comes with purchased supplies from big box stores, and using recycled materials also makes Melanie's products one of a kind!

Melanie's blog originally started in 2012 as a place to host giveaways, share glimpses into her studio, and post tutorials. It has grown however into a promotional powerhouse for handmade and indie businesses with such content as weekly featured shop showcases.

Visit Violet's Buds on Etsy! Also on Facebook, Twitter, and her blog!