Meet Kara Mollison

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kara Mollison. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kara below.

Kara, thank you so much for joining us today and appreciate you talking about a sensitive topic. It’s unfortunately relevant to so many in the community as layoffs have been on the rise recently, and so we’d appreciate hearing your story and how you overcame being let go?

I was laid off during the pandemic and honestly, I was terrified. I had been making jewelry for about 5 years at that point while still working a fulltime day job but constantly dreaming about the day I could solely focus on my jewelry business. When the layoff was announced and I told my family and friends, they were all excited and immediately wanted me to take the opportunity to make my dream a reality. I was a bit taken aback by this response and wasn’t as confident as they were. I kept telling myself that I needed to believe in myself as much as they believed in me. To help calm my nerves, I focused on the things I could control, like my art. As well as daily reminders that everything worth doing is at least a little bit scary really helped. Looking back at it now, I realize that everything happens for a reason and the layoff was the universes way of forcing me to take the leap that I was too afraid to do on my own.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

Hi! I’m Kara Mollison of Grizzly Bear Silversmithing and I’m a self-taught jeweler that started making jewelry in 2016. Coming from a background in finance, I was missing a creative outlet. That’s where my love of turquoise and the southwest came in. While growing up, we frequently took family vacations out west. At a very young age, I fell in love with the beauty of the desert and the jewelry that came along with it. As an adult, I continued collecting jewelry on our trips and from small artisans. One day my husband made a comment, ‘you should learn to make jewelry. I bet you could do it.’ But I just laughed it off and didn’t take it seriously. Eventually I started thinking more and more about it and decided I wanted to try. My original plan was to take a class but my day job kept getting in the way. I got tired of waiting so I went out to our garage and taught myself. So I learned by trial and error. Lots and lots of errors. After years of working a full time day job and making jewelry by night, I was laid off during the pandemic. I took the opportunity to finally take the leap and make my dream of being a full time jeweler a reality. Most days you can find me and our rescue pups in my home studio in the woods outside of Portland, Oregon. Inspired by unique one of a kind stones, I love to create wearable art that blend seamlessly into daily life. I really try to focus on inclusive sizing. To achieve this, I leave the majority of my work unfinished. Since ready-to-ship gems tend to be the ‘average’ sizes but what about those without ‘average’ size fingers? (Like me!) So by leaving pieces as finished-to-size, the purchaser can choose the sizing that works best for them. That way I can make sure I’m helping everyone create that heirloom gem of their dreams and not just the average sized clients. The holiday gift collection will be available mid November on my website and will include some made-to-order gems as well as one of a kind pieces.

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?

For me, the three things that helped me the most were my problem solving skills, my stubbornness and my creative vision. Without my problem solving skills, I would have never been able to teach myself how to create jewelry or learn how to fix my own mistakes. My stubbornness comes into the picture when I refused to give up until I could figure out how to make things perfect and my creative vision gave me a goal to work towards. My biggest advice would be to just never give up on your dreams! With a lot of hard work and a little bit of time, you can make any dream a reality.

All the wisdom you’ve shared today is sincerely appreciated. Before we go, can you tell us about the main challenge you are currently facing?

My biggest obstacle is honestly my own brain. Shortly after I was laid off, I was diagnosed with ADHD. I was able to mask it well as a child but it became extremely apparent when I started running my small business full time. It has been my biggest challenge as well as a huge blessing. It definitely causes me to struggle with productivity, organization, and trying to stay on task, as well as other things but I have learned to lean into it. It’s all about balance between lists, setting goals/schedules for the day and having some set time to allow myself to create freely or be distracted however my mind chooses. And then remembering to give myself the grace and to acknowledge that my brain just functions a little differently. Honestly it can be pretty neat how quickly my brain works compared to others and that definitely has its perks. Like never running out of new ideas or designs to try!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://GrizzlyBearSilversmithing.com
• Instagram: GrizzlyBearSilversmithing

Image Credits

The family photo and photo of me with our rescue pup were both taken by Kelly Trindle.

All of the jewelry photos were taken by me.