Jewelry Making Business-Successful Jewelry Designer Shares Secrets

Jewelry Making Business Successful Jewelry Designer Shares Secrets

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Jewelry Making Business - Successful Jewelry Designer Shares Secrets

Jewelry Making Business - Successful Jewelry Designer Shares Secrets So you want to turn your jewelry making hobby into a business?

Today I have an interview with successful jewelry designer and entrepreneur, Kameron Kay of KameronKay.com, who teaches aspiring artists the steps from A-Z on how to make, market and sell their jewelry.

In this interview, Kameron shares some of her tips and advice from her widely popular " Jewelry Selling Secrets" course. Keep reading to see how Kameron got started and how you too can do the same.

Can you briefly give us some background on yourself?

I'm a California native with a degree in Advertising from Pepperdine University in Malibu, CA. I've worked in the fields of jewelry design, PR, Media Relations, Marketing, Celebrity Event Planning and Sales for the past several years (www.queenofmedia.com). I released a Celtic album and have created my own line of jewelry sold internationally (www.celtickameron.com). I'm currently a publisher of online books and courses (www.kameronkay.com) for aspiring artists and entrepreneurs. My ultimate goal is to help inspire those who wish to follow their creative dreams and manifest their destiny.

When and how did you start creating jewelry?

I actually was always into shopping and fashion from a young age but the jewelry making started when a friend of mine and I attempted to fix a broken Swarovski crystal toe ring of her mother's. We saw how easy it was and decided to start making pieces for ourselves and friends to wear. From there, people were always coming up to us and asking where we bought our pieces, so we decided to sell them to shops. It was called Ruby and Blanche and we had a blast!

I also have had many people who have inspired and taught me over the years. To start I would say my desire to work with jewelry really came from my retail experience in Malibu when I worked at this trendy little shop in Cross creek called "The Malibu Colony Company". I had the coolest boss Tina and she gave me a job selling Pepi jewelry. If you haven't heard of Pepi, she is pretty well known and has a shop in Beverly Hills and Malibu.

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Jewelry Making Business - Successful Jewelry Designer Shares Secrets So Pepi took me under her wing in a "sales aspect" and graciously gave me a tour of her factory and all the "ins and outs" of the jewelry business. So Pepi would have been my personal inspiration as a designer so to speak and for design I would say I LOVE Loree Rodkin. She would be an inspiration as far as "style" since I like the Gothic and Renaissance period pieces.

Creating beautiful jewelry started as your hobby, right? What convinced you to transform this hobby into a business?

From there I found my niche and developed a love for Celtic music and jewelry so I headed in that direction. I'm into all the Highland Games and Renaissance fairs, I'm a licensed falconer and I lived and performed in London, Ireland and Scotland. So I took that passion and placed it into my work and designs. I speak about this in my course under "finding your niche" and it is very critical that you create pieces that inspire you and the things that you enjoy.

Could you tell us about your product, what is it about and what will it teach the user to do?

My product is called "Jewelry Selling Secrets" and it is a course that teaches aspiring artists the steps from A-Z on how to make, market and sell jewelry. A woman who did a recent review named Christine Grier aptly named it "The Lazy Gal's Guide to Starting a Jewelry Business" and I thought that was spot on.

It is like a Dummies Guide so to speak. I didn't want to make it boring and lengthy and heavy on the content so I really chose the key nuggets from my experience (success and failures included) and wrote a book about 50 pages give or take, that is a real quick read and has pictures! The course also includes a wholesale jewelry list which makes life so much easier. I would have loved that when I started.

It also comes with a one hour website design product if you have zero experience and want to create a website to sell your jewelry. It comes with an audio interview where I discuss several of my tips, tricks, successes and failures.

Can you briefly describe your target market for this product and what type of person will benefit from it the most?

Anyone can do this whether you are male, female, 12 or 85 years old, and you can have prior crafting experience or none at all. I personally am a musician and creative writer but was NEVER good with painting, art or with my hands per say. However I have an eye for ŠCopyright 2010  http://www.hobbydollars.com

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Jewelry Making Business - Successful Jewelry Designer Shares Secrets fashion, color and design so I was able to focus on that area of jewelry making. The video tutorials included in my course are SO basic that even your dog could do it!

For those thinking of starting a jewelry making business, would this be a good business for them to start from home? And why?

This is a great business to start in your home because you can have the flexibility and comfort of working in your own environment. The techniques that I teach will work internationally and in any creative field. Although I target jewelry designers, you can use these same techniques that I discuss in my course for not only jewelry but any craft project like lamp beading or knitting scarves or handbags.

Is a jewelry making business expensive to start and manage?

It all depends on your own personal budget, the type of jewelry you wish to make and the time you want to dedicate. If you want to make a few hundred dollars a month extra, and you want to use seed beads and glass, then you can start on an extremely small budget.

However if you want to make this a full time career and to design pieces with real stones, crystals, diamonds, etc - Then of course you are going to spend more. You can really fit jewelry making and design into your own budget and income goals.

What advice can you give someone who wants to start this business?

Don't be a "Creative" but be a Businessman or woman - I know designers and creatives cringe when they hear this but really it is the truth - You need to break out of your hermit designer shell and you need to put on your sales hat!

And if you just aren't a business person then partner with someone who is. Stay current on the trends. Read fashion mags. Follow jewelry blogs on the internet. Be persistent and use marketing, advertising and PR in your business plan. And some social media as well!

Any other advice or tips about turning your jewelry making hobby into a business?

My mom always quoted Shakespeare to me as a kid growing up and a particular quote that stuck was "To thine own self be true" I find that important for two reasons really. In a jewelry sense - You must stay true to your own creativity and never sell out.

There is a way to balance this though as I have seen both ends of the spectrum. Someone who ONLY designs what they want and never are flexible to the clients needs. I also see designers that sell to the client and HATE what they end up designing and in turn feel like a ŠCopyright 2010  http://www.hobbydollars.com

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Jewelry Making Business - Successful Jewelry Designer Shares Secrets sell out.

So remember there is a happy medium where you can still find your niche, find yourself, find your uniqueness and still be flexible when need be. And the other part of that quote is more along the line of quantum physics and being in the present moment and the universe will guide you.

Click here to learn more about Kameron Kay's “Jewelry Selling Secrets” course.

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