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

Cynthia, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard

Our focus is working with established and emerging jewelry designers that practice sustainable design methods. Our designers prioritize recycled fine metals and ethically sourced diamonds and gemstones in their collections. In our day to day operations, we reuse and recycle shipping materials and strive everyday to reduce our carbon footprint at every level of our business. We believe that if our customer invests in a beautiful, handmade piece of fine jewelry, not only does it hold value and last a lifetime, we believe it will be cherished and eventually passed on to future generations.

Cynthia, 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 built my career in the UK working in Beauty and Ready-to-Wear. In 2005 I decided to move back to Dallas and began working with Shelly Musselman and Brian Bolke in the Buying Office at Forty Five Ten. I was an Assistant Buyer focused on Jewelry, Home and Apothecary. I then moved over to Barney’s New York in Fine Jewelry Sales and finally Cicada Collection in Snider Plaza as a Boutique Director. I started my jewelry dot com in 2014 and spent a lot of time doing Pop-Up events around Texas and New Mexico to generate interest and drive sales. In addition to my local client book, these events are what helped establish BarbedWire as a destination for cool girl jewelry by indie designers.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Starting a small business is our course, not without a few hiccups. When I first started sourcing inventory I was super excited to connect with a designer who sold her jewelry collection at some very established independent retailers. She accepted my order, my deposit and I was excited to receive the assortment that I had chosen. Not knowing she had lost interest in the role of jewelry designer and had decided to close shop, I never received my order or the return of my deposit. Now, I’m not completely sure how this could have been avoided, but going forward, I made the time to travel to the jewelry shows in New York and Las Vegas and make appointments for in person meetings with designers to establish connections.

Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?

During the Pandemic, which was an uncertain time for so many individuals as well as businesses, all of the in person sales appointments fell off. As we were all sheltering in place, it made selling that much more challenging. I did hang on with Zoom meetings and complimentary contactless white glove front door delivery. Online revenue was steady but did slow at times and I was able to bide my time with email and text outreach. Business is returning to a pre-Covid pace and I look forward to traveling back to the jewelry shows, making new connections and sourcing fun pieces!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://shop-barbedwire.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shopbarbedwire/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shopbarbedwirecom/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cynthia-barnhouse-04b9681a/

Image Credits
Images provided by BarbedWire Jewelry Boutique