We recently connected with Jayde McAloon and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jayde, thanks for joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

Making jewelry wasn’t always my job. I have a Master’s degree in education and I’ve worked as a copywriter and graphic designer since the 1990s. I’ve also been working with crystals and the metaphysical properties associated with them for years, and I wanted to explore different ways to incorporate them into my life. I started dabbling in wire wrapping in 2010 when I found an amazing stone on the beach near my home in the Indiana Dunes. People at work took notice and started asking me to make things for them, too.

So miles of wire and hours of practice, swearing and drawing blood (yes, wire bites!) later, I decided to try selling my wares. I started out with the farmer’s market in my hometown, to test the waters to see how my work was received. Back then, the competition wasn’t as strong as it is these days. People really seemed to like my work, and I started adding shows to my schedule as my confidence and skills grew. Each year I’d try a few more shows.

I started to travel to other states for shows. I’d do Renaissance faires, music festivals, art fairs and anything else that sounded fun. I think 2017 was my busiest year, doing nearly 50 shows and markets. I was exhausted. All of this while working full time as a flight director for the Challenger Learning Center, a STEM education destination where children came to have field trips doing simulated space exploration missions. My busiest times were summer and fall, of course, but I added electroforming to my repertoire and a whole new creative outlet opened up to me. I finally left the center in 2017 to find a part-time gig and keep doing my jewelry.
I worked as a graphic artist for a few local print shops, but my true passion was my art. There’s this thing that can happen as an artist where you get this real FOMO or you think, “just one more show, that’ll be the way I really get my work out there.” But each show was taking a toll on me both physically and mentally. People really do say the darndest things while looking at your booth. Then, the Pandemic hit, and although I still did shows when we were able to, it also unleashed a TON of competition when so many people were home and learning new crafts. Shows just weren’t the same anymore. I was discouraged.

I did have an amazing show up in Milwaukee for an event centered around Krampusnacht. It was desperately needed as my spirits were quite low at the end of 2021 with low-attendance at shows and tons of other jewelry makers making it difficult to turn any kind of a profit. After all the travel expenses, I clutched $500 in my hand and said, “Wouldn’t it be nice to have a home base and not have to schlep my wares anymore?” Low and behold, a listing for “Office Space in town. $500/month” came up that very same day, and I thought, why not take a look? Maybe “office space” could be translated into “retail space” and I could open my own shop!
Turns out, that little office was actually pretty perfect for retail, and I took that $500 and a 500-square foot space and turned it into my first retail store. I had never run a retail store before, and when I look back on it now, I have to laugh about how very naïve I was. But man, did we have fun getting it all set up!

We outgrew that little space within six months. Since there was no lease, I was able to leave after just one year and expand into a space that’s three times the size (and more than triple the price!). That was almost three years ago. We are still having a lot of fun with it, and have added so much more to the shoppe. I’ve learned a TON about running a retail brick and mortar, and am learning more every day.

Jayde, 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?

My upbringing was anything but “normal.” My mother was an artist, working in nearly every medium, and also an animal nut. We had every creature you can think of at one time or another, including a crow, a chinchilla, horses, goats and so many dogs. We moved around a LOT based on what my dad was doing. He was ever the entrepreneur, starting this business and that business, taking us from Chicago suburbs to the Ozarks (my very favourite childhood memories) and a 600-acre farm. By the time I got to college, I was certain I wanted to be a writer for National Geographic. I wanted to see the world.

I graduated from Texas A&M University, and promptly got a job as a marketing assistant for a children’s book publisher. After several years working in the copywriting and graphic design field, I was feeling really empty. I remember bringing my Apple computer with us on a family vacation because I was freelancing for Crate & Barrel, writing catalog copy, and there was a deadline I could not miss. It was grueling work and it felt really meaningless to me. I wanted to do something that felt like it mattered. I remember telling my mom this in a phone conversation, and she said, why not look into teaching? By that time, I had three children with another on the way (and no, I never saw myself having ANY kids, much less four of them, so big departure there!) She pointed out that teaching would align my schedule with my kids’ and that appealed to me. So I went back to school and got my Masters in teaching. Right at the end of my program, when I was about to start student teaching, my mom died suddenly of colon cancer at the age of 56. We didn’t even know she was sick, and eight months later, she was gone. It was absolutely devastating.

I spent the next 15 years working in education in many capacities, from substitute teacher to special ed aide, and even bought my own science franchise where I taught after-school programs, did birthday parties, summer camps and more. While it was a lot of fun, it was also incredibly stressful with balancing that kind of work and four small children’s schedules. It didn’t help that my husband at the time lost his job twice, and the second time, it was during the housing crash of 2009. We ended up losing our home to foreclosure and bancrupcy. Very dark times indeed. I was pretty much in Survival Mode for over a decade. Not a lot of time for creativity when you’re focused on how to feed your family.

In 2010, we moved to Indiana, closer to my father. That’s when I started to allow myself to explore what I wanted to do instead of simply what must be done. That rock I found on the beach sparked a flame inside me for creating that I didn’t know I had in me. My mom had tried to help me develop as an artist, but drawing and painting were NOT my thing. Working with metal and crystals? Well yes, that turned out to be EXACTLY my thing.

Pieces of Jayde was born on a folding table in my bedroom of a rented townhouse in Chesterton, Indiana. I specialize in working with copper and natural items like crystals, feathers, bones and botanicals, to name a few. Creating pieces that celebrate Nature and bring joy to the wearer is what I love to do best. Every piece I make is one of a kind, and I absolutely love to do custom work to create a protection talisman, a piece celebrating joy or whatever else my customer asks for.

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

My life has been full of pivots. Perhaps it started with watching my father do just that in his life, from trading commodities to running a hay farm to recycling concrete to building custom homes. He was never reluctant to switch it up when needed, and even to this day, at nearly 79 years old and falling deeper into dementia, my dad’s always plotting and planning his next move.

I’ve taken that “can’t knock me down” spirit and applied it to my own life, even if I didn’t always know I was doing it. Doing freelance graphic design with four small children wasn’t working, so I went back to school and became a teacher. When that began to decline (teachers in 2008-10 were getting laid off left and right in Illinois when I was trying to find a teaching job), I bought a franchise to teach in a fun way. When the economy changed and people were no longer able to splurge on birthday parties and summer camps for their kids, I went back to graphic design. I also started a business where I do walking historical ghost tours in my town.

Then I started my jewelry designer journey, and it has culminated into my brick and mortar store that I’ve been operating since 2021. I feel like my success with this venture is due largely to all the experiences that led up to it. I’m able to do so many things myself, from accounting to marketing to spreadsheets, thanks to all the other pursuits that bought me here.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is when something I’ve created gets an amazing reaction from the person for whom it was made, and that isn’t always known ahead of time. When I make a piece, I will sometimes visualize the person who will connect with it, but often I don’t know who it is, only that someone out there needs it. Almost all of my work is one of a kind, so each piece is very specific. I recently made this really cool electroformed wizard and mounted it on an agate slice. He was really different than anything I’d made up until that point, but I knew he was meant for someone. I named him “Rafalgu” and wrote a little story about him. Just the other day, a young man was in my shoppe and saw Rafalgu sitting on a shelf. He grabbed him with an “oh wow, this is so cool,” and bought him immediately, saying he’d always wanted something like this. That is the reaction I love!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.pieceosfjayde.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/piecesofjayde
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pieceosfjayde
• Youtube: Pieces of Jayde
• Other: https://www.facebook.com/chestertonghosttours

Image Credits
All images taken by me or my husband Mike Szewczyk