Today we’d like to introduce you to Marco De La Mora.
Hi Marco, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
It all started one day after school when I realized that I had miserably failed an exam. I was so angry that I started desperately looking for an alternative way to live because I thought I was never going to graduate.
That happened a long time ago, and my schoolwork eventually picked up, but that moment was the beginning of my business journey.
My first attempt was a Chinese nickel-based jewelry dropshipping store. I would go on AliExpress and order pieces of jewelry worth about $0.50 each. The quality was so bad that the first necklace I received broke in my hand the moment I opened the package. I couldn’t bring myself to passionately create advertisements and persuade people to buy something that I knew was junk.
After procrastinating on advertising for a month or two, I started looking for a solution. At the time, that solution was selling sterling silver jewelry. I found a manufacturer and began purchasing generic silver jewelry. Before long, I came to another realization: there were already millions of generic jewelry stores, and nothing made mine any different. On top of that, I didn’t have professional photography equipment, and I wasn’t passionate about selling generic machine-made jewelry no matter how high-quality it was.
One day, I started wondering, “How can I make my own jewelry? How hard can it be?” I went on Amazon and purchased a jewelry-making kit for about $40, none of which I still use today.
The day after everything arrived, I invited my girlfriend over and sat at my desk for approximately six hours trying to make a ring out of copper. The funny part is that I wasn’t even fabricating the ring from scratch. I had bought pre-made wire, and all I had to do was solder it shut. Even that turned out to be a gruesome challenge that required far more time and skill than I expected. in the part that sealed the deal, was that the next morning at first hour I was back on the desk trying again.
After struggling for a while, I figured I needed a hotter torch, so I bought one. Then I realized I needed higher-quality solder, so I bought that too. After that, I decided I needed a better soldering block, and before I knew it, my entire room had become a jewelry studio.
I closed my previous jewelry store and began taking courses at local studios. Later, I started working at a jewelry store, where I learned even more about the craft. After months of practice, I realized that I was actually pretty good at it, or maybe I was just so obsessed with crafting that I would lose track of time while working and end up getting years’ worth of practice in only a few months.
Whatever the reason, I eventually opened an Etsy store and a website. It has been a long road, but after nearly a year of operating my stores, I finally started getting more consistent sales.
This isn’t where it ends, when I graduate from college, I plan to pursue a professional jewelry degree to then rebrand my business as a professional jeweler focused on entirely handmade work. My goal is to design and fabricate jewelry without the use of technology, a long lost art.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The biggest obstacle in my opinion for any entrepreneur is passion. without passion, there is no force on the planet that is gonna make you pursue a business with as much enthusiasm as you should.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I specialize in hand-made jewelry, and by hand made, I don’t mean beads and string or just stone setting and polishing. I start the process by melting down scrap silver and reshaping it. Making a bracelet takes me up to 10-15 hours, that’s what makes me proud and sets me apart, the dedication.
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
Unfortunately, based on my experience, jewelry is very gate-kept. Unless you come from a family of jewelers, no one is going to want to see you do better than them.
you should mostly rely on youtube and a whole lot of trial and error, perhaps specialized intensive courses for technique purposes, but I don’t think its safe to rely on a long term mentor unless you’re related to that person.
Pricing:
- Barbed Wire Bracelet V1 $85
- Barbed Wire Bracelet V2 $75
- Foxtail Sapphire Bracelet with 1.49 ct Natural Sri Lankan Sapphire, $900
- Bismarck Bracelet $180
Contact Info:
- Website: https://luccarollie.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/luccarollie/?hl=en
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@luccaandrollie?si=vRcH7f5jmGDQf5J8
- Other: https://luccarollie.etsy.com/
