Student-run business Jewels by Jocy brings beaded accessories to buyers
Jocelyn Gonzalez, a first-year architectural studies student, is selling assorted jewelry for her business, Jewels by Jocy. She created her own jewelry for two years and drawing inspiration from beading materials such as pearls. Starting this business has allowed her to express her creativity.
Jocelyn Gonzalez models her pearl bracelet and necklace with butterfly charms. She said that in addition to jewelry making, her business involves advertising, which has taught her about photography and developing a social media brand. (Megan Cai/Daily Bruin) For Jocelyn Gonzalez, pearls are a girl’s best friend.
Through Instagram and Depop, the first-year architectural studies student sells assorted jewelry for her business, Jewels by Jocy. Having created her own jewelry for two years and drawing inspiration from beading materials such as pearls, Gonzalez said social media provided her with a community and platform to showcase her products such as earrings, necklaces, bracelets and rings. As a painter and sewer as well, she said she enjoys crafting her own accessories because the process blends the problem-solving skills of her major with creativity and self-expression.
“It’s a lot of wire-bending, getting things to stay together, and it can be very small and tedious sometimes together,” Gonzalez said. “That was a lot of the fun of it.”
Prior to Jewels by Jocy, Gonzalez said she had entrepreneurial experience running an account on Redbubble, a site where artists can upload art to turn it into merchandise. Using the website to sell her paintings, she said she became more familiar with color theory, which helped her with crafting jewelry. However, one of the challenges of her new business was marketing her products.
After teaching herself how to create accessories through trial and error, Gonzalez said she spent most of her time figuring out how to take advertisable photographs of her accessories. She said she had to learn different light and camera settings, as well as programs such as Adobe Photoshop, to create her own logo and develop her social media brand.
By looking at social media, Gonzalez said she is able to find creative inspiration for her designs from other digital businesses, such as sugar plum 4 angels, and consider different ways to distribute her products. Jewelry makers online either sell one-of-a-kind items through scheduled drops or remake the same product for sales, and Gonzalez said Jewels by Jocy incorporates both of these models.
When crafting jewelry, Gonzalez said she often begins with a name that determines the aesthetic of the accessory. The Coraline necklace, for example, is predominantly blue and yellow to correspond with the character’s appearance in the animated film, but she said other pieces are titled descriptively after being made, such as the rose quartz necklace. While Gonzalez said she gravitates toward materials such as silver for their stylistic versatility, she likes to keep the fashion sense of her business eclectic, drawing from beaded Y2K jewelry to more simple pearl earrings.
“You’re supposed to have a certain niche to your business,” Gonzalez said. “(But) I don’t want to cut off any part of what I love, so I just do it all.”
As one of Gonzalez’s customers, first-year theater student Sara Lowe said what she appreciates about Jewels by Jocy is its attention to detail. To ensure the best consumer experience, Lowe said Gonzalez asked her questions about jewelry pricing and design so that her products would be affordable and satisfying to wear. When she bought earrings from her business at the Student Committee for the Arts’ Student Flea Market, Gonzalez added in effort to packaging her products as well, placing her business card in with each purchase, according to Lowe. — Austin Nguyen, April 20, 2022
This post is an excerpt. Read the full article on the Daily Bruin website.
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