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

Quincy, appreciate you joining us today. Do you think folks should manage their own social media or hire a professional? What do you do?

From the beginning I have always done my own social media. It was not a big deal in the beginning, I didn’t have much reach and frankly I didn’t have the money to get a social media manager. I also started my business when Instagram was very new so the need didn’t seem to be there.

As my business has grown and times have changed, it seems like the pressure to have beautiful images, pulled together reels and the need to “keep up with the jones'” I have finally decided it’s time to get some professional help. I just need some tweaking and for someone to take the time to clean up things it would take me weeks to do. I want my shopping experience to be easy, streamlined and intuitive and that’s what I am getting help with. I am not perfect, my work is not perfect, I don’t want a glorified image of what my business is, because frankly, it’s messy, it’s a lot of trial and error and the reality is I am creative and I enjoy working on the pieces more than presenting a shiny exterior. I don’t think that is a popular answer but I am who I am and I am never going to be a picture of perfection.

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?

My background is graphic design. I have always know I was going to do something creative, I was never book smart and was a very visual learner, so I knew it had to be something in the visual arts.

Jewelry has been a love of mine since I got my ears pierced at 6 years old. As soon as they pierced them with gold balls I had already had a prettier pair for when I could take those out. I was in uniforms from 4th grade – 12th grade, so the only thing I was able to actually pick out for myself every morning was jewelry. It sort of became my self expression, in a sea of kids who were all dressed the same. I always gravitated towards larger pieces, statement pieces, if you will. That carried through my adult years. At one point someone who didn’t know me at my office referred to me as the girl who wore big necklaces, I loved the idea of being identified that way. I felt like I wore things other people were maybe to intimidated to wear, or weren’t bold enough to pull off. I loved the attention jewelry brought me. I didn’t know how to put an outfit together, but I new how to accessorize one.

I was living in Chicago and worked at ad agencies for a majority of my career. I felt like an employee with no true voice. I wasn’t getting a lot of creative freedom and I was in a long line of people who touched ads that went out the door. I just felt creatively stagnant. I wasn’t sure how to get out of it. and I start browsing jewelry that was beautiful, but much too expensive for me to purchase. There was a necklace at Neiman Marcus for $400, it was agate beads with a large tassel. I was looking at it thinking, I can make that. So I did. I made the exact same necklace for about $45. It started there. I would come home from my job, spread all my beads out on our dining table ( we were in a condo at the time) and I would work until late in the night. I did this almost every night. I loved it, I loved the challenge of having no background in jewelry making and figuring it out. How to assemble a necklace, what pieces do I need, what holds it together etc. I started making so many necklaces, people started asking for them. Then I did a few small shows at salons or holiday parties selling them.

About a year later I moved back to Nashville where I am originally from. I was doing jewelry exclusively at that point. A friend asked if I wanted to do a holiday pop-up. It was my year of yes, I wasn’t sure what I was doing, but I said yes. I was trying to find a way to make big jewelry, but keep it light weight. I kept hearing from women telling me they had torn ear holes or saggy holes and couldn’t wear heavy pieces. I had just discovered polymer clay. Polymer clay at the time was a very new medium, mostly used by children. When you bake it the moisture comes out and you are left with a very hard and light weight piece. So I started making big earrings with it. I sold almost every piece I made at this pop-up. It also opened the flood gates for me in Nashville. I started getting more opportunities, I was getting invited to more events to sell and it became a business at that point.

What I make tends to be big, colorful and different. I think what sets me apart is that I make pieces that are very often OOAK or very small production. I make everything by hand and I didn’t want it to be an assembly line of jewelry. I wanted to make pieces that stood out, that no one one else would be wearing. That has always been the best process for me creatively. It may not be the best business model, but I want people to feel like they are wearing a special piece that no one else has. For me this business has never been about getting 100k followers or making money, it has been about the creative process, about problem solving and about making a piece someone loves as much as I do. At this point I have probably made thousands of different designs. I am constantly following color trends, design trends, fashion trends, texture trends to make pieces that are relevant to whats going on in design. My designs are not for the masses, they are for people who wear jewelry to make themself feel happy, special or stand out. I very much consider what I do as art.

I think I am most proud of how I have learned how to make it work. Every year I push myself more and more, to make more complicated designs, to make and work with materials I have never used before. Problem solving is what I do on a daily basis. I would say 70% of the designs I try actually work out, the rest are ideas in my head that don’t pan out.

I have a lot of repeat customers, I have formed relationships with people who I have never met, but have followed me for years and are always checking in for new pieces. I love that people more and more often recognize my brand or pieces I have made just based on what they look like. I ebb and flow as a business owner, I am not sure I do it the way you are suppose to or how other people have to grown their business, but what I do know is I have a unique perspective and I have a million ideas living in my head that I will probably never be able to execute, but I truly love doing this. When I receive new materials in the mail for new designs that have been floating around in my head it’s like Christmas. I get so giddy to make new designs and share them with people. I have never been truly satisfied in any other job the way I have been doing this.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

I would say 80% of my business is repeat customers. I think those people come back because they know they are going to get something completely different and unique. With all the places out there like amazon etc. to get inexpensive jewelry I think some people still like to invest in pieces they love.

I have heard from a lot of customers about how a pair of earrings or a necklace is their favorite piece of jewelry. I love hearing that, because I know how stiff the competition is out there. I have managed to form relationships with people through instagram I have never met, but I would consider them more than a customer. Some people have been there from the beginning of my business and we celebrate each other and the events in our lives. People who spend their hard earned money on pieces that I make, is never lost on me. I know they could go many other places, so when they choose my work that is special and that’s amazing to me,

Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?

Obviously covid was a rough time. My business came to a near stop during covid. Not only were people not spending money on jewelry because they weren’t leaving the house, but when masks were worn for about 2 years people had a difficult time wearing earrings with them. It makes you second guess everything you are doing, I think it was also creatively slow for me because I wasn’t producing as much.

I did take another job in 2020 and that kept me afloat until things picked back up. I was never going to close the business, as little or as much money as I made, I l just love doing this, I will probably always do it in some form or fashion no matter what. It’s just engrained in me to create jewelry even if it’s on a smaller scale. The reality is when the economy is bad, it severely affects my business, at the same time women will never get tired of jewelry, so I just have to learn how to pivot a little when things like that are happening. Maybe make more inexpensive pieces or work out a lot of ideas I have while it’s slow, so when it does pick up I am ready.       

Contact Info:

• Website: willaforddesigns.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/willaforddesigns
• Facebook: Willa Ford Designs

Image Credits
Quincy Nelson