I want to welcome my first guest blogger, a friend of mine Jennifer from Make Your Mark Jewelry! I can say I was one of her first clients. :-) I am very happy with her work. I have had a contest and review for her work before, but I wanted you to get to know a little bit more about her, and I am on vacation, so I wanted to keep sharing great information with you, Win-Win.
Make Your Mark Jewelry Custom.Handmade.Statements.
Hi there. My name is Jennifer, I'm in my mid-thirties (Yikes!), I'm the mother of 2 gorgeous children and I'm the wife to a wonderfully loving husband. I hand make stamped, wired and beaded custom, personalized, statement pieces. Say that 5 times fast!! :)
If you asked me 10 years ago if I would be making jewelry I would have laughed in your face. I was single, living in Ohio, working 12-hour days in a factory for General Motors/Delphi. I came home every day smelling of oil and my shoes were so dirty that I immediately changed them before getting in the car. I did other crafts in my spare time like making wreaths or cloth napkins or Christmas decorations but I never thought about jewelry. I never even wore any jewelry besides maybe earrings. I was a very different person back then.
Fast forward to 2006:
I had just been laid-off due to "downsizing" from Jacobsen Manufacturing in Charlotte, NC. I was now at home all day with my 1 year old and I was actively looking for work to pay for daycare. Then we decided that it would benefit our family if I became a SAHM (stay-at-home-mom). This was quite a change from what I was used to. So during nap time I started to dabble in making beaded earrings, necklaces and bracelets. I bought a few sets of pliers and some wire and beads. I didn't do much with it. I gave most of it away to my mom or friends. I never pursued a home business. It fizzled out once I got pregnant with our second child and we were selling our house and having one built (our current house). So I packed all of my jewelry making supplies away and sort of forgot about them.
Fast forward to 2010:
Our second child was almost 2. I was on Facebook and I saw a page of a friend of a friend. She makes bows and hand crafted jewelry. I quickly thought, "I could so do that!!" but I didn't want to step on her toes. I sent her a message and told her of my plans to start doing something similar and if she cared. She lives about 25 miles away and I just wanted to check. She told me don't be silly and to go ahead and do it. So I bought a few more tools and supplies, a few stamping blanks and a couple chains. I made a couple pieces with my kids' names and their birthstones. It didn't look half bad. I posted the picture on my local mommy sight, www.swpiedmontmommies.com, to show what I was up to. Immediately I had like 5 people say they wanted one. I quickly had to come up with a game plan. I searched the internet for jewelry supply companies and found one that I really liked because it has free shipping on all orders. FusionBeads was my lifesaver!!!
I started ordering more stuff and more stuff and I was starting to think that I am never going to make any money because I'm spending all of it on more stuff!!! My husband jumped in, started a financial spread sheet for me and he helps me keep my books now! I've been busy doing this for about 6 months now. It really does keep me busy. I spend most of my "free time" either working on new pieces or online ordering more stuff for more pieces. My new favorite place to shop is Etsy! My husband is very understanding and supportive! He asks me, "Are you happy doing it? Do you enjoy doing it?" and I always answer, "YES"!! And he says, "That's all that matters"! Ain't he great?
Well, that's about all there is to it. I know there are ton of other people out there doing similar things and they may even do it better. I'm still learning and trying new techniques. I love to learn new things! So if you are interested in some personalized, custom, handmade pieces you can find me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/make.your.mark.jewelry.design or you can find me on blogger at makeyourmarkjewelry.blogspot.com.
Thanks for letting me tell you a little bit about what I do.
Thank You Jennifer for sharing about your art and passion. It's great to get to know about people and share them with you, the readers. Be sure to check out Jennifer's page. She has quite a talent, can create items special for you, and is extremely reasonable.
If you would like to be a guest blogger you can contact me at begintocraft@gmail.com.
