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

Luminita, appreciate you joining us today. Do you have any advice regarding quality control and maintaining quality as your brand grows?

Quality of my work is very important to me because it has my name on a piece of jewelery. That I’ve either repaired or a custom job. Every piece of jewelry has a story and when something that has so much meaning people will talk and tell them there experience.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

My name is Luminita Curley. I’m a private jeweler and have owned my business for 8 years but I’ve been in the industry for 11 years. What is unique about me is I bring the diamond goods to you at your convenience. I do the repairs, custom work and appraisals. I am YOUR personal jeweler. I’m able to be more intimate with customers and create a relationship that revolves around trust. It makes the setting less stressful when searching for the right piece of jewelry.

I have a degree in Metals & Jewelry. I’m a certified Jewelry Designer and Diamond Grader from the Gemological institute of America. I met my husband in trade school and moved to Missouri.

Jewelry has always been a passion of mine because I love the process of how things are made and how diamonds are formed. I feel as though having a background in metal smithing I’m able to problem solve. I know what it takes to make things happen design wise.

I’m proud that I’ve stuck with my passion through the highs and lows of running a business all while doing it by myself as well as raising a family of two energetic boys.

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

I went to school for bench jewelry and then went to a trade school to get certified as a jewelry designer and diamond grader. I love the princess of how jewelry is made and being able to create pieces for people to wear.

I had prior experience in sales working for other jewelry stores so I was a bit scared to go on my own because I knew nothing about running a business. I finally said to myself “Well, you have to start somewhere!” . Luckily, I had previously built relationships with vendors that I am still in contact with today.

This industry is built on trust, which is very important to me because now it’s MY name on the line, not a business I work for.

When someone says, “if you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not learning” I can attest to that statement. Some lessons were pretty big ones and some were small but I had to learn from it and move on. To this day, I’m still learning even after being in business for almost eight years now.

My client base is from word of mouth. I rarely advertise because I don’t have a storefront, which also adds to the uniqueness of my business. I bring jewelry to customers in their home, a place where they feel comfortable in making decisions. I love that this is a new nichè for people to buy jewelry and what better way than in the privacy of your own home

There was a slow time when the pandemic happened. I tried to think of ways to keep myself busy so I ended up taking the time to try to rebrand myself and work on my social media. Thankfully it picked up!

You can’t make every sale, which I understand. The times I would get a “no or they’ve gone elsewhere”, I ask my customers to tell me what I could have done differently or if they have any suggestions for me. I’d take that constructive critism and try to include it in my next possible customer.

It’s really the referrals that keep me in business. Everyone wears jewelry and eventually it will need to be repaired. Who are you going to trust in repairing your heirloom that was handed down to you? It’s hard to let someone else touch the original piece of jewelry that needs to be repaired. The trust factor is what keeps me going.

I’m learning to have the ability to sell yourself to a customer and have them feel confidence in me.

I’m at a point in my life where it’s a bit of a challenge to run a business and raise two busy boys but I just know that I will make it work. I’m still figuring it out as I go through the different stages, but I like the challenge!

Even if my child is swaddled on me and I’m bouncing him to sleep, I am still going to be there for my customer.

I just can’t believe how far I’ve come and the different stages that my business has and have gone through. I’m still able to do what I’m passionate about and I am so thankful for that.

We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.

In the beginning I didn’t start out in the manufacturing world. My husband and father in-law were the ones that were doing the manufacturing. They’d sell to jewelry stores to carry their line of goods.

The transition went smoothly and now it was a matter of letting his customers know that I’ll be partaking the orders.

I’d say now learning what things cost because of things. I have the advantage of using it in my private jewelry business. I am able to tell a vendor “ I think that’s a bit high because I can have someone else do it for this amount”.

I’ve had a few vendors mess up some jobs or say they’ll ship it on this date and they don’t. I can only do so much on my end and try my best for customers. Yes, I’ve lost some money but I try to keep that at a minimum.

Through the years you learn thing like, this vendor is really good with color stones or this manufacturer’s prices are fair. You find vendors that have that one specific piece or that makes settings that hold up.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Lumifinejewelry

Image Credits
@ beth_grimm -Beth Grimm (pink tops) Alyx Grffin