Taylor's previous insurance career - 21 years primarily working on worker's compensation - gave her the opportunity to travel throughout the United States. During these travels, time permitting, she enjoyed collecting local artisan work. 

Jewelry designing became a passion for Taylor and that passion is still quite evident. Taylor's Got Sparkles offers handcrafted jewelry using the finest materials, including gemstones, freshwater pearls, Swarovski crystal, handcrafted lampwork glass and sterling silver. Got Sparkles operates out of the Taylors Art & Soul shop, and has brought other local artists to share the space. The space occupied is well-suited for a collaboration of several small artisan businesses. 

I actually started making jewelry on a whim. The company I was working for at the time had an employee appreciation event. I can't remember the dollar amount we could spend - it was something like $57.47. It was a really weird random number. 

Our goal was to go out and try and purchase something for ourselves and try to get as close as we could to that exact amount. I thought to myself, again going on a whim, I always wanted to make jewelry. This was especially so when I noticed that every time I wore jewelry it fell apart. 

Again, thinking to myself I really wanted to make something that was going to be made of high quality materials that would withstand me. So I just went to Michael's and bought things coming as close as I could to that $57.47. After getting everything I came within just a few cents of the proposed amount. 

Eventually I started making jewelry and after a couple of months my husband said, You know, not that it's a problem but have you seen the credit card bills? You're going to have to find a way for this hobby to pay for itself. So I just started doing little craft fairs here and there. 

While still working in insurance I wore some of my jewelry and eventually a co-worker would say, Oh I love that piece, can I buy one of those?So when I started doing the craft shows it really took off. Then I was working 50 to 60 hours in my real job and doing these craft shows. I figured something had to give. 

Being an entrepreneur came to me early in life. Ever since I was a little kid - seriously, one of my first memories I can remember was when I was 7 or 8 years old - I knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. I remember telling my mom, I want to be the boss. So I've always wanted to own my business.When I was in high school or so I tried to use small businesses instead of shopping at big department stores and started shopping locally, it's something I've always wanted to do and knowing that some day I would have my own business. 

One of the reasons we actually opened the shop was the lack of free time we had. What I would find out was that I was doing these art craft festivals and my husband would tease me because we'd say, let's go to Monterrey, and I would find a craft festival in Monterrey. This gave us time to be together and we would have a great dinner, stay at a good hotel, and the show would basically pay for that and we'd walk away with a little extra cash. We'd get a weekend away. 

Another thing I realized, attending these craft fairs, was that artists are wonderful. I eventually found, as I talked to the artists, that not many had a business sense.I'd have people working at this for 20 years and they would say, You think I priced this right? So I found that I would conduct these little seminars. I would be with this little group of vendors and I would say, here's what you need to do. You need to look at packaging, you need to look at marketing, don't undersell yourself. Make sure you're charging enough that you're covering your work and materials. Don't charge so little that people think that it's junk or think it's a little hobby. 

Now he's working for the state and has these lovely benefits, so that helps. We had health insurance through the shop but you know, you're probably self-employed, you know it's a challenge.tungsten jewelry is making a revolution in the jewelry industry by introducing unique types of designs, 

You look at the economy and commerce and your business has to be fun and it's great if you're independently wealthy. Things have changed at a rapid pace. You have to Facebook,Wholesale stainless steel pendants and steel jewelry line with bold new designs. you have to Pinterest, you have to Twitter, you have to use social media and keep up with the changes.So if you really want to maximize that social media business investment, you have to be doing this individually, often, you have to personalize it and keep it up to date. 

One of the biggest challenges is finding enough time in the day. It's interesting too,Costume and fashion online wholesale jewelry Jewelry designs, the business environment has changed so much specially I think for small businesses; we have so much on our plates. Even since I opened shop in 2007, things have dramatically changed. We're on Facebook, you have to Facebook - it's not an option anymore. 

Secondly, through individual gifting, I gifted actress Renee Zellweger. Individual giving goes directly to the stylist or the publicist or that particular artist. Here you're doing one piece versus 100 pieces like in the large gifting, doing one piece that is exactly tailored for that specific celebrity. 

Third, which is my necklace for The Vampire Diaries, is working with various TV productions and the stylists for those TV shows, and of course media attention. In October hopefully I'll be able to say, As seen on the main character Elena. Or, As seen on the third episode of Vampire Diaries. 

Gifting the pieces for the Golden Globes cost me about two grand. That wasn't the retail value, it's quite a lot more if you look at the retail value, but I had about three TV stations out here over the course of six weeks, so it kind of paid for itself. 

The Golden Globes project for the Jan. 15 event happened about two days before the event and usually it's the publicist who will walk the celebrities through these gift lounges so The Artisan Group has a display and they typically display about 20 to 25 artists.

Click on their website http://agesteeljewelry.com/!