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

Eva, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?

I honestly constantly think about this during my day to day life. As somebody who is a business owner and has a 9-5 job it would be easy to just commit to the regular job and be done with it.

However, I love my business—I love it so much and eventually I do want this to become full time for me, I just need to have patience. Many artists are in the same position I am now, especially given my age (23) I’m still finding my feet in the world and what’s right for me.

Like I said before, I’m constantly questioning whether I’ve made the right decision and if I’m happy with the chooses I’ve made. I’ve come to the conclusion that no matter how hard it gets and how strong the urge to give up is, I am indeed happy. The amount of people that I’ve made happy with my jewelry and all I’ve accomplished is enough to keep me pushing through.

The journey is long and hard but as long as I know that I’ll get to my goal I don’t care how long it’ll take. I’m willing to do what is needed to in order to fulfill my dream.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Eva Calabrese and I am the owner of the jewelry business Mystical Treasures. I specialize is wire wrapped and beaded crystal jewelry and accessories, though that wasn’t always the case.

Throughout my primary years I was a traditional artist, the usual paints, colored pencils, charcoal, etc. I never really branched out into jewelry making until much later on.
I attended college for criminal justice and psychology, which was a big turn from the arts. The way I was raised I didn’t believe in could make a solid living off of art so I gave that up to pursue something that I could easily get a job with, even if I didn’t really enjoy it the way I did art.
During my third year of college it was mid pandemic, and I began branching out my art into wearables since the boredom was killing me. I saw on social media all types of jewelry I wanted, but they were never made in my size (especially rings) so I thought to myself, “why not make it?” And that’s where I started. I made jewelry for me, then my friends asked, then their friends asked and before I knew it, making jewelry had snowballed into me selling my things at local art markets.
It made me extremely happy to see people wearing my jewelry and finding themselves in it. One particular moment that warmed my heart was selling a pair of clip on earrings to a customer. She was telling me how she never had earrings before and had no interest in getting them pierced but was always so jealous of those who could wear cute earrings. I let her know that I carry clip ons and she immediately fell in love—that being her first pair of earrings ever made me so so happy. I didn’t care about getting my brand out there like that, but the face I was able to give her that kind of joy she never experienced before was nothing like I’ve ever felt. That’s the goal of Mystical Treasures, I want people to feel like their most authentic selves when wearing my jewelry.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

A huge lesson I had to unlearn was all about timing and patience. Patience is indeed a virtue and that’s something I’ve always been perceived to have but honestly never really grasped. I used to be the type of person whoI wanted what I want when I wanted it, and unlearning that was a hard experience.

I have friends who also run their own jewelry businesses, and sometimes I viewed them as competition. I knew this wasn’t healthy of me, but jealousy consumed me anyways, especially when they became more ‘successful’ Or internet famous than me. That envy felt so gross, I didn’t want to feel that way especially since those were my friends, but I couldn’t help it.
Jealousy is a natural human feeling, there’s nothing wrong with feeling it. But there is something wrong with letting it eat you up and not doing anything to stop it. I knew I had to stop the feeling before it consumed myself and my business.
So I just began to slow myself down, really taking a look at myself and my business to see what route I should take. In time I drilled into myself that not everyone moves up at the same pace, everyone is different so of course their timelines won’t match with mine. I’m on my own course, and that’s what I need to focus on not anyone else.
It took a while for me to come to terms with it but honestly eventually I just did. I don’t really even remember the moment it dawned on me, just one day it did and I’ve felt good and happy how I’m growing since.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I think putting myself out there immediately into the public eye definitely helped build up my reputation. As soon as I got creating I promoted myself via my friends as well as putting my name and products out there in art markets. As uncomfortable as it could be at times, I think that immediate push helped me connect with other artists and gave me the motivation I needed to pursue my dream.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://evasmysticaltreasures.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mystical__treasures/profilecard/?igsh=M2hjM20yMXRqOG81

Image Credits

Images taken by me (Eva Calabrese)