I created this blog to give an inside look into entrepreneurship, manufacturing, teaching jewelry techniques and my entire experience thus far in the business. I also want you to see my life inside the studio and on the road. My husband and I along with our two little fur babies, Suki and Penny, venture throughout the USA in our RV. We also bring my travel trailer so I can work on the road. On our journeys we enjoy our time together and most of all, I get to go mining for gemstones to include in some of my handcrafted jewelry pieces. Exciting, right?
Here is my story and journey....
I created Charmed Elements Jewelry after dabbling in a few different accessory brands over the past several years. I started by selling tech handbags during college to help reduce my student debt.
I sold bags at school and on Amazon; however, it wasn’t something I was completely passionate about. Yes, I’ll admit; I did produce my handbags overseas. And in the end, it was a huge mistake. I don’t regret the decision because it did in fact push me to manufacture my next line in the USA. I’ll chat about my experience in a future blog post.
A few months after selling the remainder of my handbags, I started yet another tech brand called TELO. TELO also included a small line of tech jewelry I had manufactured in NYC. After many failed attempts with production and manufacturing, I quickly realized that I was never going to be happy unless I made the jewelry myself.
In the end I scratched that entire idea because it just wasn’t what I thought it would be. I was yearning to have more control over the entire process.
I did a fair amount of soul searching for a few months in order to figure out what my next step would be.
I started off taking a variety of classes from local artisans throughout Southern California, and subsequently I fell in love with the metal-smithing aspect that incorporated hand stamping.
Here are a few photos of me at the studio.
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This first photo is a class I took at the Sawdust Festival in Laguna Beach, CA where we learned how to melt copper and sterling silver together into a crucible. Once melted to a certain temperature, you then pour the molten metal over a broomstick. The technique is called “Broom Casting”. Sounds crazy right? Well, I can tell you that I was definitely not at ease with the equipment and the torch on my first attempt.
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This next photo is the final outcome of a pendant I made in the class. Cool, right? The great thing is, is you can re-melt all of the left over pieces to make more pieces. So that’s what I did.
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Here is a photo of another necklace I made from the scrap metal.
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Stay tuned for next weeks blog of my continued journey along with an inside peek into our studio.
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