In 1995 Stephanie was in a boring job and was desperate for a creative challenge where she could use my hands. She took herself to the local art school but the pottery class she was interested in was closed. The only thing left was a metalsmithing class. So she hammered her heart out and have never looked back.
You won’t find anything mass produced in her store, it all comes from her heart.
Today she’s a city dweller, a wife, mom of 2 boys, red-haired, loud laughing metalsmith. Jewelry is her true passion, she loves creating things that bring joy to people, that represent milestones, that make people feel loved. Like tiny works of wearable art, you will treasure for a very long time.
Their environment is very important to her so she uses recycled metals and ethically sourced gemstones in all of her work. She also uses green practices in running her business as much as possible.
Katie: 00:01 Hi everybody, and thank you for tuning into The Hustlenomics Podcast. I’m your host, Katie, and today I’m so excited to be talking with Stephanie Maslow Blackman. She is the owner of Metalicious. So Stephanie, thank you so much for coming on the show. Thank you so much for having me, Katie. I’m excited to be here. Absolutely. So do you mind telling us a little bit more about you and malicious?
Stephanie: 00:22 Sure. So I’ve been a metal Smith for over 20 years and I kind of just fell into it. I was in a job that was really boring, and I had always been good with building things with my hands. I wasn’t necessarily like an artist per se. So I was in this horribly boring job, and I was like, let me just take a class like a ceramics class. Wouldn’t that be fun? And that’s exactly what I want building with my hands.
Stephanie: 00:48 And this ceramics class that I wanted to take was full. So I was like, well, what else do you have? So they said, well, we have this jewelry-making class. And I was like, I don’t care. I’ll take it, whatever it is, I don’t care. And from the minute I was using a torch and using a saw to cut metal and to solder things together, and it was like, you know, I’m a super nerd. So it was like science and art combined. And it was just like, that was what I was meant to do. And I always think back to that, you know, that that moment where I’m just so grateful that that ceramics class was full.
Stephanie: 01:28 Yeah. So I’ve been, you know, it started out as just a hobby, but then it just became something that I was obsessed with, and I would forget to eat when I was making jewelry, and as an Italian, like, that’s not something that we do. So, so I would forget to eat. And finally my friends were like, you know what? Like, we’re sick of hearing you talk about this. Like, just get a job and do it. So I had to leave this nice comfortable job that I had. And just I started working for other jewelry companies, and it was really interesting, my, my path because I went into you know, I worked for like small designers here in New York and then I worked for this big manufacturing company where we sold jewelry to all the department stores that, you know, Macy’s, Zales, Jareds, all of those companies.
Stephanie: 02:22 And I was the head of merchandising for that company. So I got to fly all over the world. And you know, we built, we were building factories in China and Bangkok and India. And it was really interesting because although I loved all the travel and I loved that we were, you know, giving opportunities to people in other parts of the world, we really hurt our own economy here in New York City. Like it was devastating when the day came where the owners of the company let everybody go in the factory here in New York. It was just heartbreaking. So, you know, I really took that with me as part of my journey. So when I finally, you know, had my own company, started my own company, there were things that I wanted to bring to the forefront that were really important to me. So I only use recycled metals in my jewelry because there’s so much waste in the jewelry industry, and there’s so much that that happens with the environment, with you know, all of the mining and all that stuff.
Stephanie: 03:26 So with my own company, you know, you can make your own rules with your own company. So I was like, well, I’m just going to use, you know, recycled metals. And then I took it a step further when I started using gemstones, and I was like, I want to work with stone cutters who are careful and ethical and sustainable about the way they treat the miners, the way they treat the earth. So that it was ethically sourced gemstones. So, you know, it’s, it’s kind of interesting. I’m sure you feel the same way when you’re starting out with your business, you know, you’ve got things that have shaped you along the way that affect the things that you want to do in your business and how you want to build your business. Right?
Katie: 04:09 Yeah, absolutely. So I saw that you don’t use diamonds in any or jewelry. Is that part of the sustainability part of your business?
Stephanie: 04:16 Absolutely. And it’s funny, that was something that again, it just happened naturally in the way that I was working with stones when I was sourcing stones. There are, I can’t even tell you like it was just so gross, the things that the diamond industry does and, and I just wanted no part of it. So, yeah, my, my hashtag is I don’t do diamonds. And not that there’s anything wrong with diamonds. There are, you know, sustainable and ethical diamonds you can get from Canada. But, you know, it just wasn’t something that my, that I was interested in or my clients were interested in. And it was funny, my, the rings that I started making that had garnets and blue Topaz, and even green, green, amethyst, all these different colorful stones that were ethically sourced, people really were drawn to them as an alternative to two diamonds. So it happened naturally. When people were contacting me like, can I wear this as an engagement ring? And I was like, absolutely, you can do whatever you want. You know, and then it just snowballed, and now, you know, I’m known for this alternative to the traditional engagement ring.
Katie: 05:34 I liked that because that’s one thing that people kind of skip over sometimes when they’re starting their business and building their brand is setting those values. And that’s meaningful to you in the very beginning that you’re, you know, you’re not going to compromise. So I appreciate that, and I think that’s something, it’s important for everybody to think about when you’re starting out. So I liked that. I’m glad you mentioned it.
Stephanie: 05:55 Thanks. Yeah, no, I agree. And you know, as I’ve been growing my business and I’ve been able to hire people, I’m very careful about keeping, you know, keeping my business local, like creating jobs here because I can’t even tell you it was, it was heartbreaking. Like I said, to see all of these people in the industry locally, my friends were, were let go, you know, and then they had nothing else to go for. These skilled artisans were, you know, left with nothing, nothing to, to be able to do, tough to feed their families. So, you know, it was, it’s also important to me to create jobs here in New York the best that I can with my little company. Cause it’s, it’s all of us. It’s all these little businesses, these small businesses that are going to make a big impact. I saw some statistics that said, you know, 50% of all jobs in the United States are provided by small businesses like ours.
Katie: 06:54, Yeah. That’s incredible. Like you don’t realize how impactful it is, but yeah, that’s incredible.
Stephanie: 07:00 Yeah. And we don’t, we don’t realize that you know, each of our little, little ways that we’re changing the world all together make a bigger impact. Yes, absolutely. I think you’re right. It is important to keep your values, you know, whatever those may be, and everybody’s is going to be different. But keep your values at the core of your business because it’ll resonate. It will make you stand out first of all. And, and that’s what makes you different from everybody else. I mean, everybody, everybody makes jewelry now, you know, so it was really important to kind of stick to my core values because it really resonates with my customers. Yes,
Katie: 07:46, I agree. 100%. And so when you decided to, you know, lead the job that you were at before, by the way, what were you doing before?
Stephanie: 07:54 Oh, the boring job. So the boring job was in marketing for a cable television company. I have my degree from Syracuse University in television, radio, and film production. So I used it for two years and then I moved on.
Katie: 08:11 Yeah, I keep talking to more and more people who said I did not end up in the field that my degree was in.
Stephanie: 08:18, I feel like their education has never wasted. You know, there was a lot of stuff that I learned, you know, through the classes that I took in college. You know, but it was the actual hands-on making of the jewelry that I had to build upon and become an expert at. Just by doing it, you know, learning it and then doing it over and over and over again.
Katie: 08:38 Right, right. So you mentioned you’d always kind of like to work with your hands and been creative, but had you ever made any jewelry before this before you took that class?
Stephanie: 08:47 Never. I never even really wore jewelry. Yeah, no, it was, it was an interesting aha moment and was like, you know how, how people talk about fate and all that kind of stuff. And that’s exactly, that’s exactly what it was. Like. I cannot believe that even to this day. Like, sometimes I’ll make a piece of jewelry, they’re like little tiny sculptures to me, and I’ll look at it, and I’ll be like, Oh my gosh, I can’t believe that came from my hands and my, my mind, like I can’t believe I made this. And to think like, I still have the little, because it was like a metalsmithing class where you’re hammering, and you’re, you’re creating vessels out of flat sheets of metal. And so I still have that little cup that I made out of copper from that first class, and I keep it up on my workbench just as that reminder, you know, of how close I came to like missing out on my true calling.
Katie: 09:43, Yeah. I love that. I love that. And so after that first class, did you, and you realize, wow, I love this. Did you continue taking classes, or did you go out on your own and become self-taught? How did you actually learn this craft? Because it is a craft.
Stephanie: 09:57 Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, I would take like adult education classes after work. And I would work in the studio just for, I mean hours and hours and hours on weekends, just any spare moment I had, I would be at the studio just making and practicing. And you know, over the years I’ve taken various like adult education classes, just depending on what I need to learn, you know, stone setting, they’re there. You can take a class on polishing, and you can take a class on filing these things that, you know, you take for granted as being like, Oh, everybody can file a piece of jewelry or file metal or set a stone. But really to be able to do it with a high level of skill, not only does it take the knowledge, but then it just takes the practice. So like I said, I’ve been doing this for, you know, over 20 years and you know, I can’t even tell you how many hundreds of stones I’ve set. So at this point, you know, like anything, if you do it a lot and you practice it a lot, you become an expert. It’s not like I was this artist kid who was drawing and making jewelry my whole life. It just was something that I just fell into, and it just was like, that’s what I was meant to do.
Katie: 11:16 Yeah, I definitely relate to that. And so when you decided to leave the job that you mentioned before the marketing job and go into jewelry making full time, what was that like? What was going on in your head at the time? Was it scary? What were the feelings going through your head?
Stephanie: 11:30 Oh my gosh. It was so scary because I was in this great paying job where it was comfortable, and the hours weren’t too long, and I had health insurance, and then I decided to take a job that was much less pay. There was no health insurance. I had to pay for my own health insurance, and it wasn’t even jewelry making. I was an office assistant for a small jewelry designer. But it was great because I got to learn everything. Like I would get to go meet the stone cutters, and I would get to go work with the jewelry designers and the production, the little jeweler, the group of jewelers that she worked with to really see how a jewelry business can run. So I got to learn kind of everything from a business perspective working in that job. So for me, it was worth it. Even though it was a rough couple of years, it was totally worth it because of the education that I got from that first job.
Katie: 12:31 Yeah, absolutely. And I’m glad you mentioned like the business side of everything because working with actual real-life products is very different from what you know, what I do, for example, which is all online all of my things that I do are, you know, intangible, it’s all online. So what are some of the things that come up when you’re working with products? Like how have you crafted the shipping and dealing with orders coming in and making how you send it out? Personalized. Do you mind talking about that a little bit?
Stephanie: 12:58 Yeah, not at all. So it’s, it’s been a process because, you know, obviously there’s only so much that I could do in terms of making the jewelry, packaging the jewelry, shipping the jewelry, answering emails working on, on special client pieces. And so eventually it got to the point where I hired my first part-time person to just run errands up to the jewelry district to go drop off models and pick up metal castings, and you know, pick up stones from the, from my stone cutters. And that saved me. I think I started the person at like two hours a week that they would just run errands and those two hours I spent on building my business. So then over time, you know, I grew at such a slow piece that it was, it was really, I was able to refine each process, each step of the process so that and I write everything down.
Stephanie: 14:01 I have procedures and policies for every single thing that I do from the way you package the jewelry, all the way to how, you know, I do a sales report. So you know, and it’s kind of when you stop, and you look at all the processes in your business, it gets overwhelming. But when you think about it, if you write down one process as you’re going through it each day, eventually, after a month, you’re going to have a whole book of these procedures and processes. And the reason I did that was so that as I grew, I was able to hand it off to somebody. So I would train them, they would have the manual with them, and I would train them how to do whatever aspect it was they were doing, and then they could just kind of take it over and follow the manual.
Katie: 14:48 That’s a great idea. Yeah. I’m all about creating systems and processes because, without them, I think we’d all be lost. So yeah, that’s so interesting. And your designs are so unique. So I kind of a two-part question. First, how do you come up with your designs? How do you get what, where do you find inspiration? And then the second part is once you come up with a design, what’s the process of bringing it to life?
Stephanie: 15:11 Awesome. I love that as questions. So my inspiration is, is like it’s kind of like an alchemy that happens in my brain from the the the things that I’ve seen in my travels overseas and walking around New York City architecture, artwork, photography, like there are so many things to be inspired by the way people are dressed, colors, shapes. And then I’m from a rural area in New Jersey. I grew up down the road from a dairy farm, so I was kind of like a farm girl growing up. So I’m very influenced by the organic shapes of nature and textures. So it’s funny, I take the city and the country, and I combined them together into these little sculptures, these literate little, you know, sculptural pieces of jewelry. So that’s kind of, you know, my inspiration comes from just my surroundings and, and my influences and the energies that are, that are all around.
Stephanie: 16:10 And they kind of swirl around in my brain and eventually I’ll sit down, and I’ll be like, this, this image will just almost like, you know, it won’t, it won’t leave me alone. It’ll just keep following me. And finally, I’m like, all right, fine. I’ll make it. I’ll make it, and I’ll sit down and I’ll, sometimes I’ll start with a sketch. But most of the time, I, because I’m a three-dimensional thinker, I already know what it’s going to look like from all angles. So I’ll sit down, and I’ll start carving wax, or I’ll build the model in, in Sterling silver first. So then once the model is made, I have to get a mold made. So I work with a really small family-owned casting company to work on my, my molds, and my castings. So they’ll make a little mold from the model.
Stephanie: 16:53 And then once you have that mold, you can reproduce that piece in whatever carrot metal that you want. So I can do it in gold or silver. I work with palladium, and I work with platinum all these alternative kinds of metals. The white gold that I use, I use this non-traditional alloy of white gold. So it doesn’t, it doesn’t make, it doesn’t make you have any allergies. People who are typically allergic to white gold are not allergic to my white gold. And that’s like the nerd in me coming out anyway. So then you get, I get the casting, and it’s kind of this raw chunk of metal that’s kind of in the shape of the finished piece. So I’ll have to, you know, cut it and file it and sand it and you know, really shape it a little bit more to get it to be you know, a little bit more presentable. Then I’ll set the stone, and then from there, I’ll patina it if it needs a patina or any surface texture. And then I will usually give it a final Polish and steam it clean so that it’s bright and shiny and perfect for my customer.
Katie: 18:02 So interesting. That whole process is fascinating. You don’t understand like all the work and the whole process that is behind this beautiful, you know, piece of art that you receive in the end. So I think that’s interesting. And you mentioned you kind of get inspiration from all different kinds of places. Do you ever hit a creative rut or feel like, Oh, I just can not come up with anything right now?
Stephanie: 18:25 So yeah, we just spent about six months developing and creating this new collection that I just launched and it was, it was just so exciting and fun to come up with the ideas and then make the models and then choose the stones and the metals. And I was so happy with how it turned out and now I’m kind of like, good, I’m good for a couple of months where I don’t feel like I need to create anything new. So I wouldn’t call it necessarily a creative rut, but it’s almost like I fulfilled this creative flow, and now I need to take a little bit of a break, and then it will start, you know, ideas will start coming to me again probably after the holidays. Cause right now we’re just hunkered down focusing on making all of the orders that have come in, and you know, shipping things out last minute for people, last-minute engagements, last-minute gifts, stocking stuffers, that kind of thing. This is just like making part of owning the jewelry.
Katie: 19:22, Yeah. I’m sure you guys are slammed during the holiday. Yes. I’m so grateful to be slammed, actually. So what is the like timeframe from when you get a custom order or an order to when it’s finished? It’s different for the complexity of each piece varies. It also depends. There are different levels of
Stephanie: 19:40 Custom, you know, a lot of people will talk about custom work where they see a piece in silver, and they want to in gold. And that’s like one level of customization where I have to, you know, order the metal in a different, a different metal. So that’s my typical like three to five-week window depending on, on the time of year. But then there are other layers of customization where I like this band, but I want this shape stone, or you know, I have this stone that my grandmother passed down to me. And are you able to make something with it when I’m doing like true custom where I’m starting from step one with like brand new design, it could take about three months, you know, from start to finish of a piece.
Katie: 20:25 So I’d love to talk about your marketing strategy. It’s been looking through all your social media is, and your Instagram is stunning, and you’ve got some beautiful photography on there. So do you mind just walking me through your marketing, and what’s your strategy there? I take that as a huge compliment. First of all, thank you for saying that because those are all my photos. Well I’d say 90 99%
Stephanie: 20:48 Of them are my photos. There are some, I love collaborating with photographers and other designers on photo shoots, so sometimes you’ll see like a shoot that I’ve collaborated with other artists on, but most of it is mine or my, you know, some of my customers will share their images with me. So overall my marketing plan is probably where I struggle the most because you know, I’m great at making jewelry, I’m great at customer service, I’m great at the operational side of running a business, but there’s a whole other side to marketing, like a whole other level of business mindset that you need for marketing. So it’s something I struggle with because you really need to plan it out. So my current assistant that I work with has been amazing at really sitting down with me on a regular basis and planning out the calendar.
Stephanie: 21:37 So, you know, we’ll look at the holidays that are coming up. We’ll look at the time of year, we’ll look at the birthstone months, and we’ll build our, our marketing plan around those events. And again, it’s just like, it’s a small business, so there’s only so much that I can do while still making the jewelry and shipping the jewelry and answering the emails. But marketing is such an important piece because I’m only online. That’s the only way that I can let people know that I exist and, and show them that I’ve created a new collection and meet new customers. So I really do have to have a plan. So like I said, we’ll usually plan out about three to four months at a time. And I just started working with this amazing intern, and she has such a great eye. She’s the one who organizes my Instagram. So I have to give her a lot of credit for making my quilt look as colorful and beautiful as it does because she’ll say to me, Stephanie, I need some, you know, I used to photograph everything on this cigar box, which had this beautiful warm wood color with black lettering.
Stephanie: 22:41 It was beautiful, but she was like in a very nice way. She said everything is Brown. So I’ve she’s made me branch out a little bit about, you know, using other colors and flowers and you know, other types of backgrounds. And again, she, she, she’s tapped into our marketing plan as well, our, our four-month marketing plan so that she can see where we all work together on creating the blog, creating email posts, creating my Instagram and my Facebook feeds so that it all kind of works together. Like when we were launching this collection, I felt great about it because it was such a group effort that, you know, I could, I could not have launched it with the success that I did without the people on my team. Like I’m so grateful for them. It’s truly a group effort when you’re creating the marketing plan to kind of figure things out and then figure out the content and then launch it and get it and put it out there in the world. So I guess I don’t know is that a marketing plan? I guess it is absolutely. It is a way more than a lot of people. I mean
Katie: 23:46 Planning out that far in advance, I think that has to take a lot of pressure and a lot of stress out of your life, just knowing that it’s all planned.
Stephanie: 23:53 Yeah. And then, of course, you know, you have to leave a little bit of spontaneity in there too because things happen in the world and things happen, you know, in, in daily life. That is fun to share. You know, I have two boys. I live in New York City, you know, married to a lovely, lovely man and it’s fun to kind of share things that come up, you know, on a personal level. Because when you’re a small business owner, it really is about you. And I think I shied away from that for a long time because I’m an introvert and you know, that’s why I chose to have an online business, and I chose to be a jeweler where I sit at my workbench and quietly work for hours. But what I learned was that customers really want to connect with you on a, on a more personal level.
Stephanie: 24:37 You know, you don’t have to tell them all the ins and outs of your life, but they do want to have a little bit of insight into you because they’re buying from your small business, whether it’s a product or a service because of you, because they connect with you. So you really do have to kind of open up and share a little bit more about your life and about who you are and about the way your brain works. So, you know, it’s been, it’s been great. It’s been a great growing, a great way to help me grow personally as well as professionally.
Katie: 25:07 Yeah, absolutely. It’s always funny trying to figure out that balance of how much do I share about myself, you know, like how many photos of my face should I show? It’s always a balance trying to figure that out. And I think you’ve done a great job of it on your, on your social media. Absolutely.
Stephanie: 25:23 You know, the other thing, you know, as women entrepreneurs, we are so hard on ourselves. We are our worst critics. You know that voice in your head that tells you you’re not good enough and tells you you’re not pretty enough and tells you you’re not Instagrammable and you’re not this, and you’re not. You’re not. You’re not. You got to tell it to stop because you are perfect. You’re perfectly imperfect, and people relate to that. You don’t have to have everything looking great all the time. I mean, unless you’re Martha Stewart, but that’s another story. But we’re real people in our real lives, and it’s okay. It’s okay to make mistakes like your whole life, and your whole business is a blueprint. So you out of try things and put stuff out there and, and put yourself out there. And if it works, great. And if it doesn’t, you just pick yourself up and try again and try something else. Like that’s the beauty of having a small business you can, you can change, and you can move, and you can try different things. So I think we need to like to help each other. And that’s, that’s why I love your podcast so much because it’s really a place where you’re reaching your hand out to other women entrepreneurs, and you’re saying, come on, come with me. And I love that.
Katie: 26:35 Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. And it’s, it’s surprising how much we have in common that you would have never expected, you know, the same things that we’re going. And it’s just nice to know that you’re not the only one sometimes.
Stephanie: 26:47, I know. And we have to really help each other out, you know? And instead of trying to do everything ourselves and, and letting that voice talk, we need to just reach out to each other and help each other more.
Katie: 27:00 Absolutely. And I think the kind of like Instagrammable look is I think people are getting tired of that. I don’t know, I’ve, maybe it’s me, but I feel like people want the more realness, and it’s refreshing to see that people are wanting that and calling out for it. So, yeah, show your faces, ladies. We want to see them.
Stephanie: 27:20 Yeah. I totally want to see your faces. I want to see your lives. I want to see your mistakes. I want to see you know that you’re trying, that you’re, you know, we’re human. We’re not these perfect Barbie dolls.
Katie: 27:32 Absolutely, absolutely. And I know everybody’s going to want to take a look at your amazing designs and everything that you’re doing in the future. So can you tell us how to, just, how to find everything else that you’re doing?
Stephanie: 27:41 Sure. I actually have the city harvest gift guide on my website, and my website is simplymalicious.com. You can find me on Instagram Metalliferous jewelry and also on Facebook metal issues, jewelry. So I would love to meet you and learn more about you.
Katie: 28:02 Awesome. Thanks for sharing that. And thank you so much for coming on the show today. It’s been such a pleasure to talk to you.
Stephanie: 28:07 Thank you, Katie. Same here. I love what you’re doing. Keep up the great work, and I’m excited to keep listening to all the other entrepreneurs that you feature.
