Shop Talk is a weekly column featuring locally owned and operated businesses. This week, we talk to jewelry artist Paula DeSimone, who lives and works in Fleischmanns.
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How long have you lived in the area?
We’ve had a house here for about 10 years now, but we went to China in June 2001 and we came back in 2004.
Tell me about your business:
I create big, chunky jewelry; it’s pretty eclectic, it’s a lot of different combinations. A while ago I was doing vintage pins and making them into necklaces. I do business with a woman in Shanghai, and I get a lot of the materials for my jewelry from China, but just about everything I sell is made by me.
Describe a typical day in your business:
I have a studio downstairs in my garage where I work, and depending on the day, it might be a lot of different things. Sometimes I just go through my jewelry and start looking at what colors are looking good for this time of year. Sometimes I’m flipping through magazines to get ideas. I probably start work around 10 and work straight through until 5. Sometimes if I’ve got a lot of stringing to do, I’ll sit down at night in front of the TV and just string, string, string. I get the color combinations done in the morning when the light is good, and I start from there. If I’m running low on something, I’ll call my friends in China and tell them, “Send me 20 strands of 18-millimeter yellow pearls.”
I usually take a week a month and travel around, because one of my biggest customers is the casino in Niagara Falls. I go up there once a month and she buys a couple thousand dollars worth (of jewelry), which are sold in the casino. I have a gallery in Rochester that buys, and I’ve got locals around here like the Margaretville Artisan Guild. Sometimes I go out to Arizona to a big gem show they have out there; I actually have some customers in Arizona as well.
How did you get started in this line of work?
My husband got an offer to move to China. When we got there, he was really busy, and I was used to doing everything myself, but I had nothing to do. We had someone clean for us, someone cook for us, we had a driver, and my kids were old enough that they stayed (in the United States). I ended up getting to know a couple of women who took me to the pearl farms. We saw how they grow and sort the pearls, and color them, and I just started playing around with these pearls and stones. I had always been interested in jewelry, but I never had the time. Now there were all these pearls, and they were very inexpensive, so I just had fun with it.
When we came out here, it was like, “Oh boy, now we’re in Fleischmanns, and what do I do?” For the first year, I went back (to China) twice and stayed for six weeks at a time. I did a lot of jewelry making while I was there, and I started sending some of it home. It kind of grew from there.
Where do you see this business in five years?
Hopefully the bad economy doesn’t hang on too long, but I’d like to get some young people involved in this. Whether they’d be kids from town _ girls or boys, whatever _ or young people in their 20s, I’d like to teach young people this craft and have them work together with me. I could design the pieces, and they could do the stringing. Maybe they’d end up going into the business. There’s so many kids who like jewelry, but they don’t know where to start. I used to love jewelry, and I was always using my father’s pliers to take things apart and change them. I didn’t really know what I was doing. It would be nice to have some kids around who were interested in the craft.
What have you learned from your work?
I think probably people skills is one. I never was in sales or anything like that, and I know that when I dealt with any salespeople, I was always very skeptical, because I figured, they have to say what they have to say. But you know what? Working for myself, I don’t have to do that. So the sales part is not unpleasant, because if I’m making this, I know what it’s made of, and if I have any questions, I’m not going to tell you that it’s something else.
After my mother died, I was checking out her pearls, and they were all fakes. And I know she thought they were real, because she bought them at Macy’s or Bloomingdale’s. In China, they taught me how to tell if a pearl is real. You rub it against your teeth, and if it feels sandy, it’s a real pearl. It should feel gritty.
What is the most challenging part of what you do?
Keeping new stuff going, getting new designs. I just took a class down in Jersey, and I’m working now in polymer clay and incorporating that with beads and pearls. Pearls can get very heavy, but the polymer clay offsets it. You can get big stones, but without all the weight.
I’m always looking for something different, because I get bored sometimes with the same thing. I can’t go down there every day and do the exact same thing over and over.
The most enjoyable?
I’ve had someone come up and say, “You are so talented.” I’m just a regular person doing stuff, and working, and taking care of kids _ and to have someone say, “You really make beautiful stuff,” it’s really great. It’s nice to feel like I’m special in some way. It’s a nice ego boost and maybe after you get enough of that feedback, you start to believe it.
What are some advantages/drawbacks of doing business in this area?
There’s peace and quiet here, and I leave my phone away from me when I’m working, so I can get away from that when I need to. And I get to know the people, because I get to know the local politics.
I love to shop, and the closest shopping from here is about 45 minutes, so I plan and say, “I’m going to go shopping tomorrow.” So I am not tempted by the shopping, which is a big plus. I’m away from those distractions a little bit.
I don’t really think I’d be better off in a metro area. I have a sister who lives in Jersey, right by the city, so I can go down there any time I want. I don’t really think it would help whether I lived there or not. Living here, it’s so easy to go down to the city, so if I want to go, I go.
What sets you apart from your competitors?
From what I see around other jewelers, they do small pieces. I tend to be more bold and more in-your-face. It’s not going to be this little demure stuff. So I do the big, chunky stuff, and around here, that’s what stands out.
What advice would you give to someone trying to enter your field of work?
I’d tell them to go to design school. They’ll teach you the basics and they’ll also teach you about the marketing and selling end. I never had any of that through my college, and that would be a help.
Get your four-year degree and then maybe you can go off on your own, but you need a side job. I do this now because my husband’s retired and I can afford to do this now. When I had two kids, there was no way I was going to do this, because the mortgage wouldn’t get paid. I spent $10,000 last year just in loose product. You need another job, because you can’t depend on it.
I think that I have decent prices on my stuff because I don’t have any middleman, and that’s what started me out at the beginning. I went right to the pearl farms. Getting them from China, they send them right to me, and I’m making them right here. Since I’ve been doing this, I’ll see things in the store and say, “Oh my God, that cost $2.50 to make, and they’re charging $150 for it.” I’ve gone back to China a couple of times to bring people there to shop. The more you can do yourself, and get it direct from the source, the more money you can save.
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To suggest a business for Shop Talk, contact Emily F. Popek at 432-1000, ext. 255, or epopek@thedailystar.com.
