Friends are the key to happiness and Eilisain Jewelry

Earlier this month I celebrated ten years in business and I truly felt like a queen and honored as if it was my birthday. All my closest and dearest friends in Eastern North Carolina came out and I felt so BLESSED!

How did I end up with such a supportive group of friends? I’m not sure but I count myself lucky because I’ve worked with these beautiful people since I started Eilisain at Art Avenue back in 2012 in Uptown Greenville.

Let me tell you that a small business growing does not happen in a vacuum, it happens with connections, relationships and care for these relationships.

From left to right: Aileen Devlin (my favorite photographer), Nikki Lee Dixon (sexy model and friend), me, Khristi Dixon (I mean, what a HOT couple - both models might I add), Janie Askew (talented artist & stylist) and Claire Edwards (my bestie and biggest supporter).

My dear friend Sim Asher (and also photographer for the Momentary Myth collection) snapped these photos and I’m so grateful he was able to capture the joy and celebration.

Here’s a little throwback story, it’s early 2012 and I had wanted to get professional lifestyle photos of my jewelry and I didn’t know that many people yet in Greenville, so I reached out to Sim and he connected me with all the beautiful people you see above. You see Sim, well he’s practically an honorary mayor of Uptown Greenville. Sim knows EVERYONE. And he’s alot of fun so it did help to connect with Sim Asher.

Claire Edwards and I cheesin’

Claire Edwards is special to me in that she was the gateway to having a studio space to create my jewelry at Art Avenue.. Art Avenue was the brainchild of Claire and our friend Sarah Setzco. They wanted a space to nurture artists from East Carolina University art school. Myself and a group of other artists which included Aileen Devlin, Jeremy Fineman, Andy Denton, Autumn Brown and Sim Asher organized and rallied with Claire and Sarah to support the space for live music, art and more. It was a big dream that I believed in and it was critical to the success of my business.

Thus my relationship with Claire was friendly in 2012 but we’ve grown closer and I count her as one of my closest friends whom was there with me from the beginning of Eilisain Jewelry.

Kristie King, one of my mentors and dear friend

Sid and Aileen (another hot couple)

My amazing husband, Bobby Pittman and my friend Jett Harrell.

Celebrating ten years gave me perspective and incredible gratitude for my friends and community. Building relationships with my friends and customers has created lasting bonds and memories that I cherish.

When I sell a piece of jewelry it is created with incredible intention, love and care. When I sell to you I am not a factory but a person that has made jewelry from a part of our world, part of our history and story.

If you love the feeling you get reading this OR you want to keep up to date with Eilisain, join my email list.

How to Solve This Giant Jewelry Problem

As a jeweler, I often get asked many questions that are quite simple or even insider secrets that not many people know about.

So read on because I’m about to share some BIG secrets and solutions to many of your jewelry problems.

• TAKE OFF YOUR jewelry! Let me say that again, take it off DAILY. Yes, you love those earrings, but do you know what builds up between skin and jewelry? You don’t want to know. So take my advice, take off your jewelry and create a special space for it. I put jewelry dishes all over my house to hold my studs, rings and more.

• Have your highly prized, family heirlooms and wedding rings cleaned professionally and do it twice a year. I worked at a jewelry repair shop and let me tell you, that a good steam and soak in the ultrasonic cleaners at a repair shop will have your jewels looking BLINGED OUT!

• Create spaces to hold and display your jewelry. I keep pretty little dishes in my bathroom, bedroom - everywhere to hold my sacred jewels.

• Save the cheap stuff for your children or teenagers. Honestly, some of the mass marketed jewels are made with lead in China. I know it’s SO tempting but at the end of the day you want your jewelry to last and not kill you slowly.

• SAVE and mail out gold and silver jewels you no longer want and get cash from them. I do it often with all my scrap metal. Don’t take your jewels to a pawn shop, they won’t give you the full amount of what your jewelry is worth. My favorite refinery is Hoover & Strong. click the link to learn more.

So there you have it, my INSIDER secrets and tips on jewelry. I hope they help you and pass them on! We all need that one friend that saves us time and money right?

Thanks so much for reading and coming with me on this journey called life. And if you want to learn more secret ways to care and save on your jewelry, click the link below and sign up for my email list. You’ll get 15% off your next order too.

Why You Should Sign Up For My Newsletter

I'm sure you get inundated, like myself with lots of emails.  And half the time you may not even open them.

However I will tell you that there are probably a handful of newsletters that I truly enjoy getting and that I KNOW I'll learn something new.  And that is what you get when you sign up for Eilisain Jewelry Newsletter.

Taking the time to smell the flowers....that's what my newsletter is about!

Here are some very good reasons as to why you should sign up for my E-LIST.

• I'll tell you how to take care of your Eilisain Jewelry, as well as all of your jewelry. Such as, how to remove tarnish on silver or repair it yourself.

• You'll understand how to wear your jewelry - new and fun ways to be creative with adornment

• You get special invitations to shows and events across the country
  

• Learn about tarot, herbs, essential oils and more from other artists and people in the local NC community.

• Find out more about our future collections and what we're doing in the studio

• YOU get FIRST dibs on new collections and SALES
  Whoops, last and BEST reason why? You get 15% off your first order when you sign up!

I provide to my subscribers the first chance on sales and first pick to new pieces.  And also I won't spam you, yes I email about once a week which pales in comparison to the deluge of emails you will probably get from other sources.  

So I hope these reasons will only further encourage you to sign up. 
As always - stay golden!
xoxo
Lisette

Repurposing Your Old Jewelry

Back when I worked at the Jewelry Doctor, the jewelry repair shop in Greenville NC, I learned SO many tricks and ways to repair and assist people with the smallest of jewelry woes. 

You wouldn't believe how many times people would bring in costume and mall jewelry that was honestly so cherished they couldn't stand to see it'd broken and not wear it.  We also received beautiful antique gold, silver and plated jewelry that needed extreme sensitivity. 

Ellis Cutrell, the Jewelry Doctor and my mentor.

So with this post I want to give you some insider secrets on how to make your jewelry last and turn it into new and beloved pieces of jewelry. 

1.  Buy yourself flat nosed pliers and epoxy -  These are the two main tools that you'll need for very simple repairs.  Whether it be from connecting a jump ring or gluing back rhinestones or faux gemstones.  Often times customers would need just a simple connection of parts that had come undone. 

And epoxy is fantastic for all sorts of things, especially gluing back rhinestones or costume jewelry.  But one word caution DO NOT USE IT ON REAL GEMSTONES.  Leave that to the experts. 

Simple silver jump rings can save your jewelry!

2.  The MISSING earring - It happens to all of us, you've got those awesome cocktail earrings or chandelier earrings as we say and the other falls off or simply gets lost.  It's the worst because you really love them.  The SOLUTION? Turn that single pair of earring into a pendant! Yes, it'll be a perfect centerpiece on your neck AND eye catching.  You may need to buy a small box of steel wire jump rings (essentially small round rings to connect pieces) and these can easily be purchased at your local Michaels or AC Moore. 

3.  The missing stone - I think this is the worst loss for any piece of jewelry, and sometimes it can be irreplaceable.  Here are several solutions to this conundrum:
SOLUTIONS:
-If it's semiprecious or gold/silver jewelry, take it to your local jewelry repair shop and ask if they can locate a matching stone. 
-Redesign the piece using the old gold/silver with your local jewelry pair expert.  They can again, turn it into a pendant or a new ring.  The cost is not as much since you'll be reusing the same gold and silver with the time of your expert. 
-Mail in the gold/silver and leftover stones to a metal supply company such as Hoover & Strong.  They will either give you credit or send you a check!
These are honestly your best options when it comes to a missing stone.

4.  Your silver jewelry is tarnished and black -  It's a fact of life, oxygen begins to slowly blacken and tarnish your silver, especially the silver you want shiny! Thus there are several at home remedies that can work wonders to fix this problem.
-Keep a spare piece of chalk with your silver to ward off tarnish.  This handles the issue from the beginning.
At home silver tarnish removal:
Line the bottom of a glass baking dish with aluminum foil
Fill the dish with steaming hot water
Add salt (sodium chloride) and baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) to the water. Some recipes call for 2 tsp baking soda and 1 tsp salt, whereas others call for 2 tablespoons each of baking soda and salt. Personally, I wouldn't measure the amounts... just add a bit of each substance.
Drop the silver items into the container so that they are touching each other and resting on the foil. You will be able to watch the tarnish disappear.
Leave heavily tarnished items in the solution for as long as 5 minutes. Otherwise, remove the silver when it appears clean.
Rinse the silver with water and gently buff it dry with a soft towel.

5.  And lastly, if all else fails.  Take your cherished pieces to an expert.  It goes without saying that repairs are best done by those that know what they're doing.  And if you're completely clueless, that's okay! Invest the money and you will be glad you did!

I hope that my advice and tricks help you maintain and repair your own jewelry.  It'll make you feel empowered and satisfied!