We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Audra Thompson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Audra, thanks for joining us today. Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?

While owning your own business can be one of the most rewarding things ever, it also can challenge you in every way imaginable and then some. When you work a “regular job”, you just show up and do the work required of you. It can be difficult at times, but at the end of the day you get to go home and leave that behind.

Owning your own business, especially the first few years, man you eat, drink and breathe it 24 hours a day. You have to learn to balance personal and professional. People often ask how you did it, and really there is no simple answer, no magic kool-aid. You show up! For your business, for yourself, for your family, for your community!! Every. Single. Day.

And even when your tired, overworked, stressed out, wondering if you are doing the right things, you show up some more.

And out of the blue you get a message, or an email from a patron, expressing their gratitude. Telling you how what you’ve done for them has touched their life. And you remember why you work so hard, why you sacrifice so much of yourself.

It’s so rewarding Very exhausting. And a huge thrill to see that you’ve built something amazing from a mere idea.

Audra, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I have always been a creative person, it’s where I feel alive. So naturally I am drawn to things I can create with my hands

At the start of Covid I found myself without a job, and if you know me, I cannot just sit still. I went out rockhounding with a friend to kill time. I brought home some beautiful rocks. I immediately went onto marketplace to find a wet tile saw to cut these babies open!! Every time I did, I saw the amazement of the earth! The art that Mother Nature was providing me with. I wanted more!!

I joined a lapidary club to become familiar with how to turn these rocks into works of art. Man, it was a process. To be honest, I found that most people really shared little information, so my daughter Emma and I dove in head first on our own to figure it out. We drove from Southern Utah to Kuna Idaho to pick up a lapidary arbor. We really had so little information about what to do, but we’re determined to figure it out. We taught ourselves to cut cabochons. Those are the rocks you find in jewelry. We wanted to cut the most amazing stones you could find!

In the interim, I took two classes on silversmithing from the rock club we joined. I was taught the basics, but realized quickly that I was going to love it, but also would quickly surpass the knowledge I could gain here.

My husband took his Christmas bonus and bought me all the tools I would need to start my silversmithing journey.

So between the two things, a journey of creating the most amazing wearable art had commenced. And boy was I here for it!!

I love creating custom jewelry! I get to connect with people. Learn a little bit about who they are. I have had so much fun with this! I’ve even got to create jewelry from a broken antique Fenton glass bowl of a woman’s grandmothers that had broken! I have created pieces for some going through cancer treatment to help them remember they are strong!! Gifts for many, and special pieces for those who just want an amazing statement piece to spoil themselves!!

My family also does a whole side of this where we cut rocks for other silversmiths and artists to use in their own work!!

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

When my daughter and I first started cutting rocks for jewelry, we knew we would like to create a business from it. I sent a few pieces to some silversmiths I had found on Instagram. I wanted them to see our great quality. After one of these silversmiths received our stones, they reached out with an offer for us. They also had a family lapidary business and sold their stones on Instagram to other silversmiths. They offered us to cut for them on a weekly basis. We were excited to jump right in. This was a good thing and a bad thing. We were excited for the work and opportunity, not realizing many of the challenges that would come with it.

We cut somewhere between 75-100 stones a week they would sell in their sales. We got paid well, but really no one knew who we were, as it was all done on a wholesale type basis being sold under their brand. It was great, until it wasn’t. As often, egos can get in the way of a good thing, we ended up parting ways. Emotions were high, and it was necessary, but not a happy split. We, however, had invested so much time and money into what we were doing. And we were good at what we were doing!! Cutting rocks had surpassed the money I was making after 18 years working in the medical field, and well surpassed my jewelry income. So naturally we wanted to continue. I was still growing my jewelry business as well, but we wanted to keep going with this. We only knew the way we had been doing things. We quickly created our own Instagram account and got right to work. We knew we offered great craftsmanship and variety! After all, people were buying us out weekly from the other companies sales. What we didn’t know, is that this other company was intimidated by our success. So every customer that bought from us, they would reach out to them privately and belittle us. Tell untruths about who we were, how we did business. It’s was destroying our integrity. I couldn’t understand it. It was so hurtful. It’s a big wide world out there and there is certainly room for everyone. We would not be stopped. We pushed forward every day, reminding people of our quality, our passion about bringing amazing materials at a great price, and that our customer Sevice was top notch. Eventually the online gossip died down, and we are still working had at growing.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

This was hard!! Life doesn’t always look like what you think it should. My husband and I both started over mid life, and together we were determined to be better than where we had come from.

We didn’t own our own home, so a traditional loan didn’t seem to be the answer.
We came up against so many road blocks. But if you know me, I get determined and let no one stand in my way! I knew we had something amazing and I was determined to see it come to fruition.

We had success in a small business micro loan with Five Counties Association of Government. Gary Zabriski was amazing to work with in getting our funding to grow!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.dandelionwishesstudio.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/dandelionwishesstudio?igshid=MmIzYWVlNDQ5Yg==
• Other: Our stones can be found here https://d60b8c.myshopify.com/

Image Credits
Some photos taken by The Wild Within Us @thewildwithinus Kate Elizabeth Hope