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

Kasey, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

Since as long as I can remember I always had a drive to be creative. It didn’t matter the medium, only that I could express myself artistically.

When I was introduced to beads and jewelry making as a medium to explore, I never knew it’d evolve to what it has become. All thanks to people encouraging me to get it out there in the hands of people who could feel something when they see my work.

From the beginning of the business journey, I wanted to be able to grow to include other things that inspire me. Currently, I have my jewelry and cards available with the idea to expand into other markets such as business and home decor, and others.

I’ve always been inspired by the outdoors and nature which you are able to see throughout my work, be it a photo of the beach, or in the mountains, or a gemstone in a pair of earrings. I hope this shines through when wearing my pieces or receiving some love in the mail through a card.

To this day, I still find joy when I create, and do a happy dance whenever I am able to talk with a customer or see my pieces out in the wild.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Since as long as I can remember I always had a drive to be creative. It didn’t matter the medium, only that I could express myself artistically.

When I was introduced to beads and jewelry making as a medium to explore, a little over 9 years ago, I never knew it’d evolve to what it has become. All thanks to people encouraging me to get it out there in the hands of people who could feel something when they see my work.

From the beginning of the business journey, I wanted to be able to grow to include other things that inspire me. Currently, I have my jewelry and cards available with the idea to expand into other markets if the time arises.

I’ve always been inspired by nature which you are able to see throughout my work, be it a photo of the beach, or in the mountains, or a gemstone in a pair of earrings. I hope this shines through when wearing my pieces or receiving some love in the mail through a card.

To this day, I still find joy when I create, and do a happy dance whenever I am able to talk with a customer or see my pieces out in the wild. The mere fact people feel something when they see or think of my work is amazing. I’ve always had a passion to create something that wasn’t out there in the same way that I had seen, or envisioned envisioned in my mind. Being able to bring it to life is so rewarding, and the fact that people enjoy my creations is ever so humbling.

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

I’ve always had a vision of what I wanted my brand to be, and what kind of feel I wanted to create for my brand: something inspired by nature and speaks to the person who wears my pieces, or sees one of my photos. The search really was in finding the right components, or get the right view in the lens for a photo to be able to create that specific look that I have in my mind. There are a lot of beautiful components manufacturers make, that I’d rather leave that part of the creative process to them. I’ll take the views in my lens and get the photos printed for you to enjoy in the form of cards. This allows me to put specific components together to make staple pieces that I will carry for as long as I can, and then small collections here and there as well as stay true to myself and the journey I’m on myself be it through my lens or what components I have in front of me.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

One thing I had to quickly unlearn was “everyone will like your makes” As much as you know growing up, everyone has different taste, it seems to hit different when you have your own makes for the world to see. It’s both very exhilarating and humbling. Years later, and many critiques had by others I’m grateful for the constant reminder that there is always opportunities for growth.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.magnoliaandpearl.co
• Instagram: Magnoliaandpearl

Image Credits

Portrait: Diego Barragan
All other photos: Kasey Benham