Combining My Passions for Unique Jewelry
by Ann Nolen
(Santa Rosa, CA)
Crocodiles on Papua New Guinea coin, hand-painted and made into a pendant
I have been making and selling wire-wrap jewelry part-time for about 4 years, with moderate success. Fortunately I have a full time day job that pays well, so selling my jewelry was mostly for my fun and pleasure.
Unfortunately, that also removed any sense of urgency on being successful.
Then I stumbled across Rena's website and starting reading the possibilities. I got excited about making my business a real success.
The one phrase that kept jumping out at me was "find your Niche."
I knew in my heart that my jewelry looked too much like everyone else's, and that just didn't satisfy me artistically. I wanted to do something very special.
So after reading everything I could find, included all 3 of Rena's books, and articles from Dr David Weiman (Rena's friend), I decided to take a new look at my situation.
The solution was right in front of me!
For the last 15 years I have been an active member of my local coin club and collected foreign coins with animals on them. The designs are beautiful, the coins are reasonably priced.
So, the next 3 months I played "mad scientist" to develop a look I liked to combine foreign coins with jewelry making.
A couple months ago, I finally finished that phase and signed up to do my first show. I also brought along my old inventory, just in case.
Well, the results were much better than I had hoped for.
Not only was my booth busy with people asking questions and sticking around to look for long periods of time, but the sales were much better than I have ever done.
Even more telling, I didn't sell even one piece of my old inventory that day.
After all the researching I had already done, I already knew what my next step would be. I started a website to begin marketing my two new combined passions with the world... www.AnimalCoin.com.
I know that as I continue with each step of this process of growing my business, I have a wonderful online resource to find answers, inspiration, and support.
Ann Nolen
AnimalCoin.com
see how Ann paints her animal coins
