How I Became A Jewelry Designer

In a galaxy far, far away called High School, I had early aspirations of becoming a writer, a novelist to be exact. Having penned many a heart broken poem and creative short story, I believed I had what it would take to be a bestselling author.

If you can imagine, I was a nerd. I think that’s what they still call kids who prefer reading books and studying over cheerleading. I was also very determined. At 15, when I was told that I could not get a school sponsored summer job, I went up against the “man” and argued that my 3.8 GPA should outweigh my age.

Wouldn’t you know it? They placed me as a part-time clerk with the District Attorney’s Office. I fell in love instantly. From that point on law and the legal system consumed my thoughts. In college I majored in Criminal Justice with aspirations to become a prosecutor. After taking a law seminar course focusing on criminal intent and Psychology, I added another layer to the mix, declaring Psychology as a minor. Oh, now I was really in love!

From there I determined that my talents would be best served as a Criminal Psychologist with the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and set that as my goal. A year after graduation, I joined the Army and was stationed in the Military Police Corp. I met my first husband David while stationed in Korea. To make a long story short, my time in the military was not exactly rewarding, and after a few stressful years serving, we both decided that it was time for me to let go.

In 1999, I left the Army and moved with my husband to North Carolina. I had lost my taste for practicing law and no longer dreamed of following in the fictional footsteps of Clarise in the movie Silence of the Lambs. For a long time, I was content with focusing on building a family and settling down, or so I thought. Before long I was bored.

In an attempt to entertain myself, I took to reading craft magazines and DIY books. One article that caught my attention was about a simple stretchy bracelet made with beads. I thought to myself, “Hey, I can probably make that!” So off to the local craft store I went and voila, instant gratification! I started subscriptions with every jewelry making magazine I could find and spent hours at the library pouring over books, researching gemstones and other beads. I soon progressed from simple stringing to making jewelry with wire. I would make jewelry gifts for friends and family, so proud of my early crude creations.

At some point, my dearest friends demanded that I take money for the jewelry gifts I gave them. Plus, David kept telling me I should at least consider getting back the money I invested to make the jewelry in order to finance making more. What a brilliant idea! I suppose that started the wheels of entrepreneurship turning. Unfortunately, just as I was becoming so fulfilled by my new endeavor of blending gemstones, my marriage was on the rocks.

With my husband soon to retire from the Army, we decided that new surroundings would be a turnaround for us. We’d spent vacations in Florida visiting his parents, so a move south seemed like a natural thing to do. Even though David earned a pension from the Army, he took a job as a government security consultant which required him to travel quite a bit. Often he was only home one week out of the month. I become solely responsible for finding a new place to live, in a new state, in a new city.

It didn’t take very long to settle on a city not far from where his parents lived. Once settled in, I again started making jewelry to fill my loneliness. I quickly made lots of friends by hosting jewelry parties at my house and homes of my new friends. They liked my jewelry and started giving me orders. I was happy that I’d again found a creative outlet much like when I was writing poetry.

Later with a little moxie under my belt, I approached a small upscale boutique. I walked in with about ten sets of necklaces and matching earrings. The owner purchased practically everything I had and gave me an order for more! From there I went to the next city, then the next city, and so on until I had jewelry in four cities in southwest Florida!

In 2005 David and I separated. We divorced a year later. I decided to move to a larger city that promised more business opportunities for my budding jewelry business. Sarasota, FL is a bit more environmentally focused than many other cities, and it was here that I began to take a closer look at my own environmental responsibilities. Soon after, I started to research how I could become more environmentally friendly in my jewelry designs.

In the summer of 2006, just as I thought I was getting my life back on track, I was visiting one of my wholesale clients and dear friend one afternoon and was blindsided by a pair of gorgeous blue eyes. Steve and I connected instantly and found that we had many things in common, one being our desire to live more eco-conscious lives and to allow our personal environmental choices to mirror our business practices. We married in the fall of 2007.

Though my life has taken many twists and turns, I feel like for the first time ever I am living my full life. I have the love and support of an amazing man, artistic and creative expression through making jewelry, and opportunities to educate others about the profound importance of environmental stewardship. There is no way I could have foreseen or even guessed that my life would come to be at this place but I am glad that this is how I became a jewelry designer!

Update: This post was later published at More.com, click here to view.

I'm not there...yet.

Through the course of doing research for Modern Hippie Mag I come across so many really talented jewelry designers. Of course my interest is focused more towards eco-friendly and "green" designers, such as Green Diva. I am so very impressed with their green business ethics and gorgeous jewelry designs! I also felt a twinge of...dare I say, envy. I would love to be at a place where I could design strictly eco-friendly jewelry, but truth be told...I'm just not there yet.

When I started making jewelry back in 2002, I did not consider its environmental implications, not because I didn't care, it just wasn't on my radar. Being environmentally friendly wasn't a top priority in my life in general. I mean sure, I recycled newspaper, magazines, and stuff like that...mostly. Purchasing freshwater pearl, gemstone and glass beads became my obsession and I frequented buying shows in NY and Arizona often. The point is that I started to do my homework and educate myself about the dirty side of jewelry and its affect on the environment. It was then that I decided to make some responsible changes. Of course by then I also had enough inventory to open my own bead emporium!

Last year I made the decision to rebrand Jaszy's Jewelry as eco-conscious jewelry designs. Realizing that tossing out my "non-green" bead stash would not necessarily be environmentally friendly, I decided that I would try to incorporate at least one eco-friendly and/or Fair Trade component into every jewelry design I made. This is what I will do until I can completely phase out the "other" stuff. I also support a local chapter of Girls, Inc. by donating jewelry making supplies for their DIY craft programs. Of course items that I need to replenish are certain to come from companies that have environmental and ethical standards like obtaining recycled Sterling Silver from Hoover and Strong, a refiner with over 95 years experience in environmentally responsible refining, ethically sourced gemstones from Columbia Gem House, and Fair Trade Tagua from One World Projects. In addition, I try to donate to organizations that are at the forefront of the environmental movement, like Green America, Greenpeace and NativeEnergy. Effectively, I’m doing what I can with the resources that I have.

One day very soon creating environmentally conscious jewelry won’t be an option, it will be the standard. No one will have to question whether or not someone or the environment was harmed by its creation. When that day comes I would very much like to be considered right alongside of companies like Green Diva, but for now I’ll happily follow in their environmentally friendly footprints.