Jewelry designer's business is blooming - WDBJ7
ROANOKE, Va. There's nothing like a fun statement earring to make an outfit. Now a Roanoke woman is turning her passion for fashion and design into a successful business- one pair of earrings at a time.
Delicate earrings made of silk flowers. Tassel earrings crafted from ostrich feathers. Those are just some designs in the Caitlin Elizabeth collection.
"Jewelry was something I kind of fell into," said designer Caitlin Elizabeth Meyers.
You could say the seed was planted for these blossoms years ago when Meyers was a young girl growing up in Maryland. "My mom starting making our Halloween costumes when I was in the fifth grade and I kind of picked up an interest from there," Meyers said.
She began sewing her own clothing. "It started with pajamas and tops and skirts and those sort of things," Meyers said. She eventually went into a career in apparel design that brought her to New York City and Washington D.C. until one day she happened upon a fabric flower sample and you could say her imagination bloomed.
"From the fabric flower sample I started playing around with different accessory pieces and seeing if I could make jewelry out of the fabric flowers," Meyers said. She would come to her apartment after work in D.C. and sit at the kitchen table experimenting with different designs.
Since then her ideas have grown into a jewelry business. Her brand is Caitlin Elizabeth. Her dad designed the logo- a C intertwined with an E. "I think that's a special touch I'll always keep because it was something that he came up with." Meyers said.
Some of her signature earrings are made from silk flowers. Meyers crafts each earring in the Roanoke apartment she shares with her husband. The silk flowers come in from New York- pressed and starched soft and light weight. "I've always loved statement jewelry and statement pieces but I never liked the weight of it after an evening out when you're dancing on the dance floor," Meyers said.
Her unique and lightweight pieces solve that problem.
Meyers took a chance and walked into boutiques to see if shop owners had any interest in carrying her line. "Initially I just went into stores to see what people would think of it and I would talk to boutique owners," Meyers said.
She also went to trade shows and met with buyers from the Southeast.
It worked.
"The response has been really great so far," Meyers said. "I'm in a couple of stores in Georgia and back in Maryland and Tennessee and Kentucky as well."
Her pieces are also at Punch boutique in Roanoke and they're also online.
"Right now I'm working on Spring-Summer of 2020," Meyers said as she showed some sketches on her tablet. She's keeping her signature flowers in some designs and adding different types of gold hardware.
Meyers makes each piece herself. "I do all the hand wiring," Meyers said.
But as the demand increases the work process will change. Meyers will concentrate more on design and she hopes to work with a manufacturer to make the finished product.
"I am excited I think 2019 is onward," Meyers said. "It's all about growth."
