Today we’d like to introduce you to Vanessa Cooper.
Vanessa, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
When I first started working with crystals, I was at a very low point of my life, I felt lost and overwhelmed with what was going on with my personal day to day life. I was living in Hawaii at the time and my favorite escape from life was the beach, I used to drive to the beach almost daily. On one of my trips to my usual spot, I decided to take a detour and I stumbled across a very small and cute crystal shop. The energy was amazing! As soon as you entered, you felt nothing but good vibes. I fell in love, I started going to the shop every time I went to the beach.
Overtime I got to learn about so many crystals and their amazing properties. I started buying books and reading articles, anything that would help me learn more, and the more I learned to more, I fell in love with how amazing crystals truly are.
After doing a lot of research, I came to the conclusion that wearing crystals was the best way to get all their amazing benefits. I decided to make myself a necklace, to my surprise, people started complimenting it and asking where I had bought it after a few people asked me to make them a necklace, I gave in. I started with six necklaces. The people that bought them gave me their reviews and next thing I knew, I was making orders regularly.
Overtime, I expanded from making necklaces to making rings, bracelets, anklets, hoops, studs, and toe rings. As my skill level improved, I decided to challenge myself regularly by starting up new techniques. After a year and a half, I finally perfected Soldering, Wire-wrapping, and Electroforming.
All the jewelry I make starts off as a crystal and a metal that I put together to create a beautiful, one of a kind piece. Every time I make a piece I make sure to put nothing but good energy out into it. After it is finished, I take the time to cleanse it and put good intentions into it for its new owner. Every piece I make has a small part of my soul, my love, and my energy.
As for my body care, I only put out what I would personally use. My products are all vegan, organic, and I do my best to keep the products eco-friendly. I offer discounts on future orders if you recycle your containers back to me. The glitter I use is a mixture of edible vegan glitter and biodegradable glitter. My bases are vegan and organic, and I don’t use fragrance, only pure essential oils. I use these products regularly knowing that they are clean and safe, and most importantly homemade.
This is my passion and I do my best to show that in my work.
Thank you for taking the time to get to know a little bit about me and my business.
All my love
– V
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
This Journey was far from smooth. It was very bumpy and very scary. I took multiple breaks and had many failures. I came up with so many ideas that just weren’t successful. I had multiple products that I had to reintroduce multiple times before people actually decided to check them out. There were many times when I put my business aside for my 40hr/week job, just to realize over and over again that I had to keep working at what made my soul full instead of just focusing on bills and making a multi-billion company even more money while neglecting my business. I had to invest a lot of money and a lot of time to my business before I actually got to see it flourish. It was scary, using savings to buy equipment, not knowing if I was going to be able to make a profit out of the pieces, I was planning on making, even scarier not knowing if I was going to be able to perfect my craft. I am self-taught, I didn’t take classes, I didn’t have someone showing me the way. I had a lot of sleepless nights and failed products. But at the end of the day, what kept me going was my dream. My dream of putting good out there, of helping people, bringing a little bit of light to someone going through a rough time. And it worked I came to realize that putting time and money aside for this was a priority. I have had a good amount of jobs since graduating high school, and while some of them filled my heart, be it because of some amazing coworkers, or the change I was doing, no job has ever made my soul feel as full as when I accomplish something for my business. My advice for anybody out there who is just starting their business is, don’t give up, keep working to reach your goals. Don’t be too hard on yourself when you fail at something, sometimes you just need to step back and start all over or try a different approach. Surround yourself with like-minded individuals, in today’s world, you are only a hashtag away from finding people who are trying to better themselves. And if you just can’t seem to find anyone, look me up, I’ll gladly add you back on Instagram, reply to your emails with whatever answers I have, try my best to help you find that spark. Remember, you can do this!
Please tell us about Ivystones.
When I first started, I only made jewelry, now I work on a lot of different things. There are a lot of other jewelers/candle makers/ home decor makers out there. I think what sets me apart from them is the care I put into everything I do. I take time to personally cleanse each single piece, after cleansing, I charge a piece with good energy and positive intentions. I reach out to customers to make sure that they got their products to see if they have any questions about them. I take a more personable approach than a lot of people in this industry and that is because I truly care and want to help as much as I can to put good out there, to be someone people can come to with their questions, to be a shoulder for them. We live in a world of Me, and I don’t know if it is because of how I was raised, or because of being a mother, but I am doing my best to change as many minds into thinking of us, of a whole, a community, rather than a Me. It is hard, I work full time, and I have a family to care for, but that is what makes me so proud of this business, because even though there have been a lot of obstacles, it is thriving, and I’m still giving it my all.
Often it feels as if the media, by and large, is only focused on the obstacles faced by women, but we feel it’s important to also look for the opportunities. In your view, are there opportunities that you see that women are particularly well positioned for?
I feel like my circle of girlfriends has opened up a lot of doors for me, without them I wouldn’t be doing this interview at this moment. I have such a supportive group of independent and motivated women and we constantly share our products/services on social media, as well as do our best to open up new doors for each other. I think sometimes people forget how powerful word of mouth is, and how much power we as women have.
It’s kind of like that Pixar movie, Bugs, sometimes people see us as little, the weaker side, but they forget how strong we really are, and how strong we can be when we get together and help each other.
Contact Info:
- Website: magicbyivystones.com
- Email: ivystonescreations@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/magicbyivystones/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ivystones94/
Suggest a story: SDVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
