We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Lynnae Tanner Ruff a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Lynnae, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. One of the toughest things about progressing in your creative career is that there are almost always unexpected problems that come up – problems that you often can’t read about in advance, can’t prepare for, etc. Have you had such and experience and if so, can you tell us the story of one of those unexpected problems you’ve encountered?

I was just minding my own business one day in August of 2016, when Lady Grey Beads got pulled into a potentially disastrous situation for a small business owner. The headlines that ran on Fox 2 news station, Webster-Kirkwood Times & St. Louis Post Dispatch newspaper read, “Trump supporters mistakenly target Webster Groves jeweler” & Webster Groves business owner relieved as mix-up over Ivanka Trump subsides & Made in St. Louis: Jewelry designer’s grace trumps controversy.”

I hadn’t been on social media the day before, so missed the story involving Ivanka Trump, another similiarly named New York city jewelry business and what I can only imagine was a political publicity stunt. Political tensions were at an all time high and the digital warriors/trolls were on guard against any perceived or real slights. When that story hit, it released a tsunami of hate and vitriol aimed at whoever came up in google searches for “Lady Grey”. I went to bed that night wondering why all of a sudden my Etsy store was getting tons of searches. It made sense to me the next afternoon, when I answered a phone call and the person was asking to speak to the manager. I told them I was the owner and the woman launched in with, “well, what you did to Ivanka was just wrong and we are going to put you out of business.” Whew! I finally asked her if she was sure she had the right number, because I had never sold any of my pieces to Ivanka. I told her I wasn’t a Trump supporter, but I wouldn’t have been so rude to a customer and do what was done to her. The lady finally calmed down, apologized, hung up & went to search for the culprit. At that time, I thought it was funny and went to FB to post the incident on my personal page. A friend commented that they thought about me the day before when the story broke. My heart started racing, because I realized what this could do to my business “reputation.” I went on to my business FB page and was horrified to see the amount of awful comments that were being posted on it. I took time to respond to everyone. It took about 3 days for it to come to an end. At one point, one of the women became a protector and posted that I was the wrong person and that I was actually a very nice person. She confessed in a private message of apology that she when she saw my jewelry she actually thought that my pieces were beautiful and that Ivanka would have loved them.

My husband who is a professor had worked as a journalist on the school newspaper as an undergrad said this was a story that should be told, so he pitched the story to the papers and news channel. The story got picked up by all of them. I am so grateful that I was able to tell my story and set the record straight.. I’m so thankful that I could turn a very negative experience into a good one. It also taught me to be careful about what I “like” on social media, because there is so much meanness online. Over the years, I have run into people who heard about me from that incident. St. Louis was so supportive.

The other day I gave my business card to someone and they noted that there wasn’t a phone number. I laughed and said there is a good reason there isn’t a number listed. I’m glad that I can laugh about the situation now.

Lynnae, 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?

Long before jewelry became my mental salvation, it was my passion. As a little girl growing up in Belize, C.A., I loved collecting pretty rocks and as I grew into a teenager, I became a jewelry lover. When I was 13yrs old my dad bought me a little turquoise bracelet to “start my jewelry collection.” He had no way of knowing how true that was going to be. Fast forward almost 20 yrs, I was a new stay at home mother to a baby who didn’t like to sleep for the first 14 months of his life. I’m not sure how I would have survived sleepless nights and feeling jetlagged for that amount of time if I hadn’t discovered jewelry making. Jewelry gave me something positive to focus on. Each completed piece allowed me to feel that I had accomplished something for the day.

There was a bead store about 5 minutes away that became my happy place. After designing and making my third necklace a woman who worked there asked me, “have you thought about selling your jewelry, because you are very good at it and have a great eye for it.” I hadn’t. I was just making some pieces that I wanted to wear. One day, when my baby was sleeping a friend came over to give me a little lesson on finishing pieces. I remember telling her that we should have a little show and invite people. She laughed me off, but I thought it was a good idea. Two other friends encouraged me to think about selling. So, with the words of Laozi, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” I made 10 pieces and most of them sold. It certainly has been a thousand mile journey. I always tell myself, “keep moving one foot in front of the other.” I didn’t just learn to make jewelry. As a small business owner, I’ve had to learn everything about running a business from scratch, even though I’d just want to spend all my time just making jewelry.

I create beautiful jewelry with stones, pearls, Austrian & Czech glass and seed beads. As my children got older, I had more time to take classes to learn beadweaving which I love as much as the beaded pieces. Beadweaving allows me to make more creative & artistic pieces. My style is more formal and that shines through my work regardless if it is strung beads or beadwoven. I believe that everyday of life is a gift and should be treated as such. I love that my jewelry is given by and to loved ones and that each piece is treasured. I love that women just feel even more beautiful and special when they adorn themselves with a Lady Grey Beads piece, From the beginning, I’ve only made pieces that I love and would wear myself. I am guided by what I think is beautiful, rather than by what I think will sell. Jewelry for me is art and not a money maker, I can’t imagine a day when I will never want to make another piece.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding part of making jewelry is seeing how beautiful and special my customers feel when they are wearing their handmade Lady Grey Beads. Our church hired their first openly gay female pastor. When she accepted the call, I gifted her with a pair of earrings that I named the “All are Welcome”. It was a very sparkly crystal with a rainbow finish on it. It has become part of her Sunday uniform. She wears it every Sunday and I love seeing the sparkles all the way on the back pew.

Another rewarding part is doing good things with my talent and artistic gift. I support charities and non-profits by donating pieces to their fund drives. I made a special piece one time to raffle to help raise money for an adoption. I didn’t know ahead of time that the colors I chose to work with were the country colors where the child was being adopted from. Knowing that I played a small part in changing a person and family’s life is so rewarding.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

A roadmap or checklist would have been helpful and cut down the learning curve. There are certainly more resources for people starting out now. When I started my journey, I didn’t even know how to work a FB page or even what kind of a website I needed or how to get one. Technology has gotten so helpful for small businesses like mine.

Contact Info:

• Website: LadyGreyBeads.com
• Instagram: @ladygreybeads
• Facebook: @Ladygreybeads
• Twitter: @tannerruff
• Other: LadyGreyBeads@gmail.com

Image Credits
Karthika Krishna Photography Pinski Studios Charles Fremont