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Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Jewelry for automobile lovers
Business Spotlight
For Sun Post News
By Debbie L. Sklar
Interviewed: Owners and husband and wife, Alicia Hanson & Brad Johnson, jewelry designers.
What’s your business?
Designer and manufacturer of handmade sterling silver jewelry and recycled car parts.
Describe your business?
We are lovers of the Hot Rod culture who have chosen to create jewelry that caters to those who love the design of the automobile. For example, sterling silver rings with vintage automobile grilles, custom bracelets with car front-ends and creates jewelry from reconstructed car parts.
Your newest line is from recycled items?
We go to swap meets, car shows, junkyards and estate sales and find old car emblems, then clean the emblems up and reconstruct the pieces into jewelry pendants by drilling holes in the emblems. We also make earrings created from flattened bottle caps.
Do you have special training in this business?
Silversmithing and casting courses.
What’s the hardest part of this business? The best?
The hardest part of the business is finding cost-effective ways to drive people to the Web site. The best part is going to swap meets and junkyards and finding cool treasure to reconstruct into something new. I love carving something in wax making it come to life in metal.
Who are your clients?
Car lovers, mostly Hot Rod enthusiasts, Hot Rod builders, gearheads, Rockabilly moms and Southern California culture lovers.
Describe your personal role?
Alicia: I wear a lot of jewelry and a lot of hats. I am a jewelry designer, graphic designer, junk collector, maker of most things, solderer, marketer, photographer, shipper, car lover, melter of metal, mom. Brad is wax carver extraordinaire, silver casting partner, bottle cap flattener and cohort in all things.
Why would someone want to wear your jewelry?
Many people admire the design and beauty that goes into automobile design and our creations embody that same enhancing quality from the classic automobile and translates it to people with a revved up piece of jewelry … Each piece is a small piece of American car nostalgia that has so many meanings to each person.
Price Range of items?
Recycled necklaces $45 – $155, Bottle cap earrings $15.
Future goals?
Getting one of our car grille rings on Jay Leno and getting our jewelry into more boutiques across the country.
By Debbie L. Sklar
For Sun Post News
