Posted December 21, 2016
Big changes are coming to Isabel Jewelry! After Christmas I will be closing my Pinedale storefront and gallery for the winter season. I’ve had the doors of my shop open since 2010 and it’s been really fun, rewarding and educational. But it is very demanding to run a retail storefront while at the same time working as a professional metalsmith. So my plan is to give myself a long deep breath of time to design and re-orient my business path and figure out exactly how I want to proceed. Here are some of my thoughts for my continued creative expansion:
I hope to take a lot of quiet time to design a super one-of-a-kind gallery-level line of jewelry. In the past year I’ve been teaching myself how to cut stones and want to design a custom collection using Wyoming jade, local petrified wood, agate, other regional gems and perhaps some dots of fair trade diamonds or other ethically sourced flashes of sparkle.
Another area I am excited to expand is my unique wedding (or any occasion) gold bands. I have a bunch of designs in my head that I just never get the chance to realize and I am looking forward to seeing them come to life. These rings will offer interesting alternatives to common wedding and stacking rings for women and men.
During the coming year I will also be considering reaching out to other retail locations about carrying my jewelry. Currently I sell my jewelry on my website and in my store but I am a little bit limited since I live in a tiny town in Wyoming so I would like to look outwards. But this is more of a long-range plan that will take planning and time.
I have a really fun top-secret empowering jewelry project in mind for all of my fellow strong and independent women….but I am going to wait to share that!
Finally, in my painting and drawing world, a very exciting offer came to me this fall: I was offered an artist residency at the Jentel Foundation in northern Wyoming. For a month this winter I will be living at the residency and totally devoting my time to working on paintings. The portfolio I applied with is available on my artist website. I’ll post on my social media while I’m there if you are interested in seeing progress.
So the big news is that I will be closing the storefront for at least 4-5 months; I am not going out of business and you can still shop online but I will not be available for daily retail storefront shopping. If there is demand I will do an occasional pop-up or trunk sale. I’ll keep you posted here and on my social media.
I hope everyone has a beautiful holiday season and that you and your family are full of love and happiness and peace. Thank you for supporting my creative journey and visions.
