Today we’d like to introduce you to Tivonya Stephenson.
Hi Tivonya, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
My favorite “toys” growing up were my mom’s art supplies from when she went to art school in college. She had a big box of seed beads. So that’s when I started making jewelry. She helped me register a business when I was in high-school & we did a few craft shows & art fairs. That was my first “taste”. I really wanted to learn how to work with metal & melt metal. I remember getting a $9.99 Ace Hardware soldering iron from the bargain bin & thinking I could figure it out with that. As it turns out it’s a bit more complicated & takes a whole lot more heat to do what I had in mind to do. Fast forward a few years & I was working in cosmetics at a department store. A couple of my coworkers went to work for a Mom & Pop Fine Jewelry store in the mall & came back down to my counter telling me I should apply because I’d love it. So I did & they were right, I did. A few weeks after they hired me the owner pulled me into her office and said “Well, I hired you to sell. But, it seems like you like the bench. Do you want to be a jeweler at the bench or sell? It’s up to you.” Obviously, I chose to jewel. I learned so much there & had an amazing teacher, Ryan Lee. That store closed & moved & I found myself unemployed, but, pretty well hooked on fine jewelry. So I put my application in at the only jeweler in town who’s work I hadn’t repaired. I figured those guys must know what they were doing & I wanted to learn more & learn how to do thing well. But, he didn’t call me back & I didn’t really want to work anywhere else. I reluctantly applied for waitressing jobs & almost started working at The Olive Garden but my heart was so not in it. I decided to try just one more time to see if I could get on at Reiniger’s. He hired me & I learned soooo much there. He sent me to a stone setting class & I learned the rest from the other jewelers on staff. What an education! My last year end bonus at that job I used to purchase my own tools. Shortly thereafter my husband and I put our house in Illinois up for sale & moved to the Oregon coast. We didn’t know where exactly we wanted to be & were waiting for our house to sell so we were living in our fifth wheel with all of my jewelry making supplies in the Siuslaw National Forest. That was November 2019, right before covid started. There weren’t many choices for work for me, I’d put my resume in everywhere jewelry related in town. After a few weeks I just needed to make income & thought- “ I’ll start a business & take in a few jobs. Once I get hired somewhere else it will just be a side thing.” I found studio space to sublet inside Waterlily Studios in downtown Florence & met the amazing Lily Madera Hursh who inspired me quite a bit to do what I was doing. A few weeks later the COVID-19 shutdown ground everything to a halt. Lily was kind enough to continue letting me use my studio space all through COVID which I’m so grateful for. It’s how I survived all that both literally & mentally. I was meeting people outside on the sidewalk with gloves & a mask & taking in mostly repair work. What I thought was just going to be a side project became my income source & it did surprisingly well. A few months in & I was making enough to rent my own studio space in Florence which I had for about a year & a half. COVID was a bit of a setback for us, though, as a family & we never meant to live in our fifth wheel for 2 1/2 years. We thought it was going to be like 9 months, but, COVID went on & on. So, that had to come to an end & eventually we moved into the valley (2022) where we found housing more affordable & I thought it would be better for my business so I moved my studio to downtown Eugene in the historic Smeede Hotel Building where I’ve been ever since!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life.
In all the ways. Once towards the end of covid the Thousand Trails campground we were living in had a water main break & had to do repairs so the water was off for a couple of days. I was like “well dang, I’ve got to work or no groceries this week.” So I poured the water from the dehumidifiers into a big bowl & washed my hair & got cleaned up that way & went to work. I got like 5 compliments on my hair that day & I had to just stop myself from laughing. On the inside I was dying laughing because I thought “oh if you only knew”. Now it’s a funny story & I tell it very dramatically, but, the reality was even though it was a hard time in my life because I wasn’t used to living that way for a portion of the world that’s an everyday experience when you don’t have access to clean water.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
T&L Fine Jewelry LLC thinks outside the traditional jewelry box & brings an eco-kinder approach to the fine art of personal adornment. I specialize in ethically sourcing rare & unusual gems & I’m comfortable working in high karat gold & platinum. In addition to those very niche skills I’d say my design aesthetic is unique. There’s a lot of highly creative quirky costume jewelry available on the market but it falls apart fast. Then there’s mainstream fine jewelry with a lot of styles that are the same thing over and over again for about the last 100 years. I try to stay somewhere in combination of the two where I’m making really creative quirky cool things, but, heirloom quality with high end technical skill so they’re built to last & can be passed down to the next generation. There’s a place for modern manufacturing technologies in fine jewelry & I’m not against them- but, more often than not I’ve seen it produce poor quality items. I like using old school techniques & hand work to make the next generation of valuable heirlooms & I feel good about keeping that part of history and craftsmanship alive & I’m pretty excited to keep learning about it.
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
Well my experience with starting the business because of the circumstances everything felt like a huge risk. But, really I didn’t have much to lose at the time & I didn’t feel like there was a better choice so I had to overcome the fears and just do it. It was hard psychologically. It’s still hard. I’m doing hand drawn sketches that are very imperfect while it feels like the rest of the world has moved on to ultra perfect (but often physically illogical) AI generated images of jewelry design. I still cringe before I send my sketches off to customers & every time I wonder if anyone will even like what I do. The vulnerability of the whole experience has seemed like the biggest risk to me. But, apparently people do like what I make & I’ve been so blessed to work with really great customers that seem to really love the intentionally not mainstream experience they get at T&L.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://TandLjewelry.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/t_and_l_finejewelry
