Quick…pop quiz…what does the Department of Defense and unique handmade jewelry have in common? Until today I would have said “Ummm, nothing” but now I know different! Kristie and Kellie are twins who both currently work at a company who deals with contracts with the Department of Defense and later in the evening make up the dynamic duo known as Southern Charm Designs!
These talented twins seem to have walked the same path as long as they can remember, in fact, in reading her interview, they seem to almost be two halves of one person! They both wanted to work in fashion design as young girls, have the same hobbies, friends and even drive the same model cars! This team attended the same college and earned the same degrees in Software Development. They both realized at some point that this career did not fill their need to be creative and moved into documentation design, web design and desktop publishing. This jump was able to combine their love of computers and their need to be creative souls.
Kristie picked up jewelry making about 8 years ago and readily admits that her first few designs were nothing to brag about…but she had found a passion and stuck with it! As her skills grew her work began to take on a new life full of creativity and skill. Kristie decided to begin selling her now professional work to the public and her ever present sister and friend joined in on the fun. Kristie began teaching Kellie the tools of the trade and the skills that she needed to create beautiful jewelry and Southern Charm Designs was soon born.
What began as a few simpler pieces has grown into a line of their own to include beaded necklaces and different types of bracelets and earrings and, most recently, jewelry stamping! This latest endeavor into stamping has opened up a whole new world for Kristie and Kellie as they now not only have beautiful pieces, but can customize work for their customers. In Kristie’s words, she “loves the feeling of making someone a necklace and they tell me ‘It’s absolutely perfect!’” What makes it perfect? Well, besides the care and craftsmanship that goes into every piece, the custom ability to say whatever the customer wants to say makes it personal and goes a long way to making a satisfied client.
Kristie is happy to share what she has learned in her time of building her business and offers some very useful advice to those looking to sell their own handmade work. In a nutshell…Go for it! You don’t want to look back and wonder what could have been. While this advice is basic on the face, it is one of the hardest hurdles to overcome. That being said you never know what could be unless you jump in.
Kristie was kind enough to share one more fact about this sister team; they each suffer from Fibromyalgia and don’t hide this face from the world. Fibromyalgia is a chronic illness which causes daily pain, severe fatigue and abnormal sleep. Even with this obstacle, hey want the world to know that even dealing with a disability, you can still go after their dreams as Kristie and Kellie show in their very full lives!
Kristie and Kellie have tried their hands at some local craft fairs and quickly discovered that this mode of selling is not for them for a variety of reasons. Instead, Southern Charm Designs is building up it’s following on the web which is yet another learning curve for this talented team; but one they are tackling with vengeance. You can find them on Etsy as well as follow their work on Facebook and on Pinterest.