Jewels By Jan, Barefoot Sandals for your Sexy Feet

In the Studio with Jan, Jewels by Jan

Posted by Cafe Handmade On Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Hello fellow artists on Café Handmade! I’m just thrilled that I joined this group. On my very first day as a member I saw an item that was handcrafted by another artist that I just couldn’t live without and HAD to buy it. We all know what it takes to make something totally from scratch. Each and every one of us has allowed our creative imaginations to spring forth in order to share our talents not only with each other but also the Internet world. What did it take for YOU to realize that you had a unique artistic ability? In my case it was when I was given a pair of barefoot sandals as a gift from a friend who had returned from Cancun. I’d never heard of or seen a barefoot sandal but shortly thereafter I discovered that I had a gift for assembling an array of beads and crystals into unique and interesting patterns of color and sparkle. The gift of these soleless sandals was so appropriate for me because I used to spend almost every weekend at Shell Beach in La Jolla enjoying the sun and listening to the crash of the waves on the rocks. I would spend practically every Saturday there – reading, taking photos, listening to smooth jazz along with thanking my good fortune for moving from Iowa to San Diego – a move that was meant to be. I was 44 when I’d decided to leave Iowa after vacationing in San Diego for the very first time. I totally fell in love with the ocean, the palm trees, the mountains, the climate and the year-round flowers. I was tired of the snow and ice and besides – why stay in one place when there’s a whole big world out there to experience? It was a bold move, picking up and moving to a new city 2,000 miles away. I didn’t know a soul but that independent and determined Aries spirit took over and I just did what I had to do!

I actually made my very first pair of sandals in 2004, shortly after receiving the gift pair. That was when I discovered The Black Bead, a fabulous bead store in the little seaside community of Ocean Beach. The hardest part was figuring out what to buy that would all go together out of the millions of choices they had. I carefully selected beads of different sizes and colors and bought a roll of the strongest Stretch Magic they had because I knew that the pair of sandals I intended to make should be durable, yet comfortable to wear. The cord couldn’t be too thick because my “design plan” was to be able to string tiny seed beads on it for the part of the sandal that hooks behind the 2nd toe. At this point I was really going to just practice to see what I could create. Back at home, after several attempts at finding a pattern I was happy with, I still wasn’t sure how to make the same type of sandal as the gift I’d been given. That pair had been made with thick wood beads, was very earthy-looking but was too clunky to be very feminine. I wanted my creation to appeal to women who enjoyed going barefoot yet would wear a sandal that had some sparkle and some color. My “epiphany” was when I realized that adding a shank button would solve two things – it would tie the whole design together and it would also solve what to do with the two ends of cord I’d been left with. So….after taking a very basic, wood-beaded barefoot sandal and adding my own touch of sparkle and glamour, the Jewels by Jan barefoot sandal came to life and our distinctive “medallion-in-the-middle” became our signature trademark that identifies each and every pair of our barefoot sandals!

My sister Pat Jones and I decided to form our online business in the Fall of 2005 with just a few designs but we quickly learned that with the increasing popularity of destination beach weddings, we’d found our market niche. What could be more perfect for a beach wedding in the sand than to wear a beautiful crystal and pearl barefoot sandal on the tops of your bare feet? It just made so much sense. Our business grew as we created a Bridal Collection and began seeking out wedding accessory web sites and other wedding-related businesses that would offer our products. We became listed in several Drop-Ship Directories so that people who wanted to start their own website could add our products to their pages.

That was the start of what is now our 5th year in business. Our products can now be found on numerous web sites, wedding-related as well as other types of sites. We designed retail packaging so that our products could be sold in resort gift shops and other retail stores. Our bridal sandals are being sold in an upscale boutique in Maui called The Enchantress and our casual designs can be found in a new swimwear boutique in the ultra-modern city of Abu Dhabi. I am constantly looking for new business and thinking of ways we can familiarize brides-to- be with our product line. We haven’t spent a dollar in paid advertising because there are SO many ways to tell your business story that cost absolutely nothing – you just have to look for them. Our determination and passion for what we handcraft has never wavered and we continue creating new designs to keep our web site fresh and new.

I recently started a blog. In addition to joining the Cafe Handmade Virtual Craft Show, I also joined MadeitMyself.com and BlackShoppingChannel.com, displaying our sandals for sale on both sites. We were recently featured on AOL’s fashion blog called StyleList in a section called Indie Handmade - I keep in touch weekly with top-notch wedding coordinators so we can stay in the loop on what brides are asking for. The possibilities for new business are endless – we never run short of ideas and goals and the passion that was there from the very beginning still burns bright.