Meet Grace C

We were lucky to catch up with Grace C recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Grace, great to have you with us today and excited to have you share your wisdom with our readers. Over the years, after speaking with countless do-ers, makers, builders, entrepreneurs, artists and more we’ve noticed that the ability to take risks is central to almost all stories of triumph and so we’re really interested in hearing about your journey with risk and how you developed your risk-taking ability.

I try to minimize risk as much as possible by creating safety nets ahead of time. For example, I developed my brand presence online for over a year and started selling my jewelry on the side, while working my corporate job. It gave me an opportunity to learn how to run my business without all the pressure. I think it was important to do as much as I could to prepare, when I had a steady income, even though the progress was much slower and I had to give up some free time . I figured out my packaging, my website, social media, taxes, materials, etc before my livelihood depended on it. So when I got laid off, I was set up well to just scale my business up and expand. It made the risk a lot less daunting and felt like an easier transition.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I’m a handmade jewelry designer primarily working with polymer clay. I incorporate painting techniques into my jewelry to create wearable pieces of art. I started using polymer clay because it was convenient to work with in my tiny NYC apartment. But because I love traditional art, I decided to combine both hobbies together by creating miniature clay paintings. My Inspiration comes from renaissance and impressionist paintings, fantasy films, and nature. The most exciting aspect of my work is how versatile clay can be, especially on this miniature scale. It’s very liberating to be able to explore endless ideas and still have a functional item that can be worn everyday.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Video editing and photography were very important skills to promote my work. I built my entire business off social media, so making sure my products look good in the camera is crucial. If you want to grow on social media, I really recommend making short form videos because they have the most potential to go viral! I like to shoot in natural light and have a little corner of my desk where I can set up some flowers and books that match my aesthetic. I personally use Inshot to edit on my phone. It’s simple to use but offers a lot of customization.

Creating deadlines for myself is helpful to keeping a schedule and tracking my finances. For me, I set a cycle for my shop restock dates. So if it’s every 6 weeks, I will be able to calculate how many pieces I need for my new collection to meet my financial goal and schedule according to that.

My time as a corporate jewelry designer was a great experience to learn about jewelry construction, design, and the importance of knowing your audience. I didn’t study fashion, jewelry, or design so I learned mostly on the job.

If you knew you only had a decade of life left, how would you spend that decade?

My current obstacle is making my business scalable. Right now, I only offer handmade items which makes them very expensive and limited to how many I can physically make. I’d like to expand into manufacturing or at least something like moulds and prints so I can grow my profits and offer cheaper options.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://gracingyouwithart.etsy.com
• Instagram: @gracingyouwithart
• Youtube: @gracingyouwithart