Jeweled Blossoms–Solo Exhibit (With Giveaway!)

The day I found Jeweled Blossoms was a good day (types Curator Beatrice, feeling her “Walk the Line” earrings swoosh against her neck).  In an online market saturated with jewelry sellers, Jeweled Blossoms is a clear standout.  In just a year, owner Cathy has made more sales than most Etsy jewelery artists make in five.

The shop is filled with pieces that are classic enough to last for years while retaining a unique, slightly whimsical element.

Just as impressive as the jewelry are the descriptions that accompany each piece.   Take, for example, the description that accompanies one her newer necklaces, “The Art of Femininity:”

I shop for frilly kitten heels I’ll probably only wear twice, but will keep for years because I simply can’t part with them. I play with make-up and dab on perfume, hoard handbags and adore the color pink. I love reading fashion magazines and having flowers in every room of the house. I’m unquestionably girly, but as I’ve come to find, there is truly the Art of Femininity.

Cathy agreed to let me pick her brain in an attempt to get a taste of the artistic genius behind Jeweled Blossoms.

Curator B: There are more jewelry shops than any other type on Etsy, and yet in just one year you have made your work stand out above the crowd. What do you attribute to your success and your high volume of sales?

JB: Gosh, I can hardly believe it’s been a year! It took me a long time to really figure out how to be successful on Etsy. I learned an amazing amount during the first few months on Etsy, so it’s hard for me to say just one or two things helped me get to where I am. I do think my shop really started to take off when I began pulling together my brand. I think having a consistent and cohesive look in my shop through my products, photos, descriptions, banner, packaging, etc, is the one thing has really set me apart from a lot of other Etsy shops.

When I go shopping on Etsy, I’m always drawn to shops that have good brands – where I can immediately see the point of view of the artist and their work. It makes me feel confident the artist has it together – that their products are good, they’re professional and simply that they care a great deal about their business and their work. I think a having a good brand can do this for you, though it’s not always easy to create right away.

Beyond my brand, I’d say having solid customer service and showing my customers I appreciate them through prompt communication and quick shipping is the key to keeping customers happy and creating a loyal clientele.

(Curator Beatrice can attest to the quick shipping and good customer service.)

Curator B: When did you start making jewelry? What made you pursue it as a money making endeavor?

JB: Actually I blame all of this on my college roommate, Beth. During my last year in college, she and I were wandering around downtown Davis and she mentioned that she wanted to stop by the local bead shop. I had never really spent much time in bead shops and when I thought about it, I always pictured bead weaving, which just wasn’t for me. Well, once I stepped through the doorway, I was like a kid in a candy store. After that, I started buying supplies and spending every waking moment creating jewelry (much to the demise of my grades).

Over the next few months I started taking classes at the local shops, learning techniques from basic stringing to chainmaille, bead weaving to riveting and eventually, metalsmithing. I was voracious for any new technique I could find. Well, as you can imagine, by this time I had a prolific amount of jewelry piling up around me and really, there’s only so much jewelry you can give away to your friends and family, so I decided to try my hand at selling jewelry.

Now I should say that I’m not the type of person that can start something and only follow it through halfway. When I decide to do something, I’m in it all the way. So when I decided to start Jeweled Blossoms in February of last year, I began setting up my business for the long-term even though I wasn’t quite (and still am not) certain about what my goals for it would be. I decided to join Etsy after hearing about if from my best friend Jen. At first I thought it’d just be a nice way to gain back some money to feed my habit, but I eventually saw that it could really become a real business. So here I am, a year later.

Curator B: Could you take us through the typical “life” of one of your pieces, from idea conception to finished product? What is your process?

JB: My designs usually develop through one of two ways. The first is through sketches. I have a small moleskin notebook that I carry around faithfully, explicitly for this purpose. I’ll be around town walking around or in San Diego at La Jolla Cove or simply passing the time with a friend and something will spark a design and I start sketching immediately. Then when I’ve some time to create, I’ll pull out my sketches and start creating, sometimes creating the piece exactly as I had drawn it or from memory, and other times it evolves into something else entirely. Then I create a story inspired by the piece.

The second way is actually the exact opposite of the first. For about half of my pieces, the story comes before the piece itself does. I know this sounds weird to a lot of people, but sometimes I have a story in mind that I want to tell, from my life or my travels, my wishes and dreams. I write those stories down in the same notebook with my sketches and then create a piece I think represents that story.

(Curator Beatrice is absolutely in love with the idea of a piece of jewelry that came into being as a story first and a piece of wearable art second.)

Curator B: If you had to flee your home in an emergency with only one piece of jewelry, what would you grab for as you ran? Why?

JB: Only one piece of jewelry?? Good gracious, I might just go down with the building! Actually I’d have to say my Grandmother’s ring. She passed on a few years ago and it really means a lot to me. It’s this plain gold ring set with stones that she had for as long as I could remember. I’d visit her each weekend and I could always remember seeing it sparkling on the ring finger of her right hand. I hope to take the stones and put them into my wedding ring when I decide to get married.

Curator B: Of all the Etsy shops I’ve seen, the descriptions of your items stand out far above the rest. They are almost “J Peterman-esque.” How do you name your pieces? Do these descriptions come easily to you?

JB: It’s funny that you mention this, because it’s something I’ve heard from a few different people. I actually had never heard of J Peterman before starting on Etsy, and only after other people told me that my descriptions reminded them of that style. For me, the stories are just as important as the pieces themselves, if not more so. I can’t seem to get one to exist without the other. (I actually have heaps of jewelry laying around the studio awaiting their Etsy shop debut that I simply haven’t found words for yet – I once told this to a fellow jewelry artist and she said I was just plum crazy.)

I name them after whatever I felt inspired them at the time. It is always feast or famine with my descriptions… sometimes I have so many stories in my head I don’t have enough time to create everything I want to from them and other times I have things waiting for the right story to come along. I love the writing part of it though. If I wasn’t a jewelry designer I would very much like to be a writer.

Curator B: Do you sell in other venues besides Etsy?

JB: Technically I have shops on silkfair, dawanda, artfire and 1000markets as well as my own website, but I haven’t done much to sell on any of the other sites. I just don’t have the time to dedicate myself to so many places all at once, so I’ve mainly kept my focus on my Etsy shop.

(Curator Beatrice nods her head, pretending she totally knows about all those other online markets. Come on, people–there’s only so many places a Curator can stalk, you know?)

Curator B: What is the most challenging part about owning your own business? Conversely, what is the most rewarding?

JB: Gracious, I think just being a one-woman-show encompasses the greatest challenge to owning my own business. It’s hard to know how to do everything from creating to marketing, taxes to promotion, bookkeeping to customer service. And then having the time to do it all, and to do it well! Being a business owner really demands a high learning curve and a lot of discipline.

In the end though, I wouldn’t have it any other way. Though I’ve had my fair share of late nights with little sleep, I love being able to create lovely things for lovely people, to see the direct results of my growth as an artist and a business owner and to simply make my own decisions. I can run sales when I want to, decide when to work or when to play, and play an active role in determining my future. There’s really no experience like it.

Curator B: Where do you see Jeweled Blossoms in five years? Ten?

JB: In the next years to come, I’d love to see my website (www.jeweledblossoms.com) be active and flourishing, my work carried in a few shops and boutiques and for me to have finally made a decision whether or not this is something I want to do full time or not. (I still work full time at a day job right now so it’s certainly been very busy!) Eventually, I think it’d be positively phenomenal if I had a B&M, but I think that is quite a ways down the road.

Above anything else, in ten years I’d like to be happy and content with the choices that I’ve made.

Cathy has graciously offered to provide as a giveaway one of my personal favorite items in her shop, the Inseparable Necklace-Dainty Edition:

I know, right?!  To be entered for a chance to win, stalk Jeweled Blossoms and tell us which of the items or item descriptions you like the best. Leave your comment here by noon PST on Friday, March 13th.  Good luck, Stalkers.  This is not a giveaway to be missed.

Speaking of giveaways, a shout out and congratulations to the winner of last week’s giveaway:

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

25

Timestamp: 2009-03-07 07:46:03 UTC

The 25th comment belongs to Amber G who said, “The Ellie doll is my favorite and Peter the needling is adorable as well .”  Congratulations, Amber!  Enjoy your baby owl pin.

What are you waiting for?  Head over to Jeweled Blossoms.  Go on, now.

Happy weekend,

Curator B.