For the love of jewelry – my passion, my distraction, my obsession.
In 2013, TheSparkliest was just a vague idea. I registered the domain and set up my IG handle, then parked it all. I didn’t have time to focus on what it could actually be.
For IG, if it sparkled or was diamond shaped, I took a photo and posted it with what I hoped was a clever enough caption. As I developed my voice, TheSparkliest became the platform for me to share my jewelry journey. I took a queue from my husband, Chris @mightydynamo by expressing myself and doing what I love – not giving a shit what anybody else thinks. (I guess that shows with my 500-ish followers… Thanks for sticking with me!)
2013 was also a pivotal year because I was feeling restless in my career path. Somehow it had deviated away from creativity and was leaning into more of a business role. Chris was on fire at the tech company he worked for, and hosted several events around creativity. It was attending one of these events where designer Scott Robertson spoke about artists’ challenges of breaking muscle memory to draw something new or different. This led to an ah-ha moment for me:
“If you can break muscle memory, then I must be able to make muscle memory.”
Within a week I’d signed up for a cartooning course. The foundations I learned for a single panel cartoon, about visual hierarchy and the single headline payoff, fueled me with the confidence to produce “crappy doodles” that would later turn into brand storytelling in the form of ad concepts, video storyboards, website and email marketing wireframes.
At another creativity event Chris hosted, author Neil Gaimon spoke about writer’s block. My takeaway was:
“Write something crappy today and you'll have something to edit tomorrow.”
How freeing is that? The messages from Robertson and Gaimon combined in my head and made me feel like I could accomplish anything I set my mind to.
Next I set sights on my true passion – jewelry. I wanted to become a more educated shopper, so I enrolled in GIA gemology courses. Diamonds first of course! In 2014 we were living in London, UK, so I was able to complete the lab classes at their Bloomsbury campus. I was also able to pop over to Paris to attend a few workshops at L’École Van Cleef & Arpels. With a creative agency background, the most interesting one for me was Having Access to Van Cleef and Arpels Creations. Similar to how an agency briefs designers and writers to develop clients’ campaigns, high jewelry collections strategically come together to deliver on a theme that their jewelry designers are briefed on.
I never imagined that in the years that followed, I would actually start working in the jewelry industry – and that as a creative marketer, I’d be drawing on both cartooning and gemology while wearing many hats to drive brand and product strategy. I learned a lot… about e-commerce, digital advertising, influencer partnerships, and email marketing, but best of all – I learned more about designing and making jewelry.
“Working in the jewelry industry has ignited my passion in ways I never could have imagined.”
So why am I celebrating? Much as I’m proud of my 500-ish followers and 40-something blog viewers, I’m celebrating because after 10 years dabbling in a discovery phase, I’m now taking a MIGHTY leap. Filled with purpose I didn’t have back in 2013, the culmination of my experiences from the last decade has given me the courage to step away from the security of corporate life and embrace entrepreneurship. As I look over the cliff, it’s like a mysterious geode – hard to tell exactly what’s on the inside, but I know it will be sparkly… and that’s enough for me!