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I wish to thank all my family, friends and fans for an amazing six years of growth for Garden of Silver! It is extremely hard to run a successful small business and I have received a lot of help along the way. Thank you to my husband Thomas for being so supportive of my dreams. Thank you to my Mom for being there in the beginning standing under a tent on the streets of NYC in all types of weather (mostly rainy and windy!), helping with trade shows as we began to grow and being the best unpaid employee ever! Thanks to my cousin Nancy for working the Lincoln Center show with me in 100 degree sweltering weather. Thanks to my cousin Jackie for spending the day keeping me laughing at an incredibly slow trade show. Thanks to my Aunt Penny for flying to Atlanta and keeping me company at yet another trade show. Thanks to my friend Joe for hosting my first jewelry party, and all my coworkers for attending, which launched this business. Thanks to my cousins Kelly and Erin for hosting trunk shows and 'liking' my thousands of Facebook posts. Thanks to the rest of my family, Aunt Nancy, Aunt Kathy, Colleen, Kathleen, Meaghan, for buying tons of jewelry at those jewelry parties! Thanks to my friend Susan for being such a great mentor! Thanks to my jewelry teacher Kathleen for teaching me everything from saws and hammers to blow torches. Thanks to my business coaches Robin and Tracy for countless hours of advice and support and teaching me how to run a jewelry business like a pro. Thanks to my amazing production assistant Hayley for helping me fill hundreds of jewelry orders perfectly.  Thanks to the extremely helpful and supportive community of jewelry designers that are always there to help me roll with the punches and celebrate the good stuff. Thanks to my sister in laws Jen and Marlene for hosting jewelry parties and promoting my business to everyone they know. Thanks to my future sister in law Laura for working for hours at a time on the computer, all bundled up like a mummy in my chilly studio, as my marketing assistant. Thanks to my friends Carol and Patti for being there through thick and thin. Thanks to my favorite buyers, Sharon, Jackie, Susan, Nikki, Jill, Jenah, Ben, Nancy, Pierre, Melanie and Brooke. Thank you to all of my Facebook fans and followers of the endless social media outlets that I have to post on. It's exhausting but so gratifying to see your responses. Thank you to my customers for loving handmade, garden inspired jewelry! Thank you to my friends for helping me along this exciting journey! I appreciate you all for helping me to live my dream. XO

I was honored to be part of the "New Designer Gallery" at the JA New York jewelry trade show that took place last week at the Javits Center in NYC. Every year 10 new designers are chosen to exhibit their jewelry and be exposed to fine jewelry buyers from around the world.

My favorite part of participating in a trade show is getting to know the artists/designers around you. I have learned so much from them and it is always fun to be around other entrepreneurs.

There was so much press at the show as well, I think I was interviewed at least 30 times! I was blown away though when I found out that the Editor At Large, Jeff Prine, of Accessories Magazine put an article online during the show choosing one of my pieces as the "Item of the Day"! 

Overall it was an amazing experience and fabulous opportunities and connections were made. Loved it!

Garden of Silver has just launched our first Kickstarter campaign, "Garden of Silver Grows".
We want to create jobs for young adults as they learn about entrepreneurship in a creative business. 

As a NYS Certified art teacher for the last 25 years, I have been privileged to work with some amazingly talented teenagers. I am dedicated to showing my creative teens how to be financially successful with their art and creativity. I feel that is extremely important for young creatives to learn the business side of the art world, as I was once faced with those same obstacles. I incorporate entrepreneurial skills into each of my high school class curriculums. Young creatives must learn the business skills required to market themselves and their art professionally in this competitive marketplace. I love tapping into the energy and talents of these young people and they always end up amazing me as we build upon great ideas together.

Kickstarter pledges will allow the expansion of Garden of Silver, while providing jobs for young adults. By working at Garden of Silver, young adults will learn marketing and advertising strategies, preparation of professional promotional materials, digital photography skills, product photography, Photoshop/computer graphics skills, blog writing, social media tactics, customer service, trade show booth design, jewelry display and presentation, working at a trade show, dealing with buyers, taking wholesale orders, and jewelry production techniques. They will learn everything that goes into working at a creative business.

These young adults will participate in the pre show preparation and real time business transactions in the international market place at the 2014 NY Now Gift Fair in New York City. This immersion in the market exchange will provide an invaluable opportunity for me to continue to teach, mentor and help to launch the next generation of creative entrepreneurs with real world experiences in one of the many careers in creative based business fields.

The way Kickstarter functions is that we have to reach our goal of $5000 in 30 days or, unfortunately, the project does not get funded. Trade shows are extremely expensive up front, before any orders are even written. This Kickstarter funding will allow Garden of Silver employ young adults immediately which will enable them to become better leaders, thinkers and future entrepreneurs so they may build upon their own boundless potential into new domains.

Thank you in advance for your support and sharing our story with your friends and family and for playing an integral role in helping to launch Garden of Silver to the next level and inspire young adults towards a creative future.