Today we’d like to introduce you to Heather Davis.
Hi Heather, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I started creating jewelry in 2015. It began as a hobby and quickly turned into a therapeutic outlet for me. I found myself craving a creative outlet while I was in the depths of parenting two young kids and for the first time ever being a stay at home mom. I gave most of my creations to friends and family as gifts but began getting informal requests to make pieces as gifts. Within just a few months, I had a little side hustle going! Shortly after that time, my mother and best friend was diagnosed with terminal stage IV cancer. Making jewelry then became not only a catharsis from the stresses and anxiety in everyday life but an outlet to channel and process my grief. I created a bracelet inspired by my mother’s battle with cancer and let friends and family know I would donate half the proceeds to MD Anderson (where she was receiving treatment). I was blown away by the response and number of sales and was able to donate thousands of dollars in my mother’s name. It was also at this time that I realized making jewelry could possibly be more than a hobby for me and I felt a calling to dive further into the world of jewelry design.
My mother passed six months later and we moved from Denver, CO back home to Texas to be closer to family. I also found out I was pregnant with my third child right after her passing. I took the next nine months getting settled in our new home in Dripping Springs and enrolling in metalsmithing classes in Austin. I soon discovered the bounds of creating jewelry were endless and that creating beauty with my hands was indeed my passion.
The next couple of years, I spent tinkering in my rudimentary jewelry studio experimenting with designs and different jewelry mediums and selling my creations on Etsy in order to purchase more equipment to expand my studio.
A dear friend and badass entrepreneur encouraged me to take that leap of faith and turn my little Etsy shop into a real business with a website and online store. My friends and family rallied around me and lent their time, ideas, and skills to help with the process. This is when Heather Davis Designs was born in 2020.
Just a week after the photoshoot of my first jewelry line, my youngest brother passed away suddenly. Hunter, a graphic designer, had been such an inspiration in my work and had created my business logo and countless other visual marketing designs. I was crushed and the grief was so heavy I didn’t think I had it in me to finish creating the business. My creative fire and passion was suddenly dim. With the support of my friends, family I pushed forward and turned my dream into a reality, all the while knowing he was right there with me cheering me on every step of the way.
The purpose of Heather Davis Designs is to capture and transform life’s raw and beautiful experiences into handcrafted, uniquely curated forms of self-expression. My experience with profound love, grief, and joy have opened my eyes to the fleeting essence of life and pushed me to consciously find purpose in all of life’s experiences.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
In order to not sound redundant, I have bulleted some of the information I touched on in the previous question:
-stressors of being a mom to three children and trying to start and then run a small business on my own
-starting and running a business while dealing with tremendous grief due to the loss of my family members
-the stress related to the financial and emotional risk of launching a new business and questioning if it will be successful or not
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I create design and create jewelry (all by hand) using a mix of metals (mostly brass and gold) and semi-precious gemstones. A couple of my most popular pieces are a personalized necklace that features a word or phrase in morse code that is made with beads representing the dashes and dots. Another best-selling piece is the HDD Signature Hammered Hoops. These hoop earrings are hand-formed and soldered and made with brass or silver. They feature a unique hammered texture and are available in 4 different sizes. They are incredibly lightweight and super versatile and look great with both casual and dressy outfits.
What sets me apart from other jewelry designers is that every piece of jewelry is designed and handmade by me in my home studio. I also like to experiment with ways to patina metals using household chemicals to achieve unique colors and patterns. No two pieces of my jewelry are identical. I also love to take classic pieces of jewelry and add a unique and interesting flair to them (i.e., classic gold hoops with freshwater pearls wrapped on them).
Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
One of my favorite memories of my childhood was my obsession with being an entrepreneur. I constantly had a new idea of something to create and sell including, painted rocks, fans made out of pine needles, and other handmade crafts. The most memorable business endeavor was around the age of ten, I converted the wooden playhouse in our backyard into “Smiley’s Bar and Grill.” I made menus, set up tables, and printed off flyers and taped them on the community mailboxes near my street. Advertised on one of the flyers was a “lunch special” that includes a hamburger, chips, and a beer for $2.00. A couple of days later on a Saturday, the neighborhood landscaping crew was out working and saw my flyer which included my address. Several of the landscapers knocked on the door of our house and when my mother opened the door, they held up the flyer and said they were there for the lunch special. My mother being the good sport and constant supporter of my business endeavors called me in the kitchen and together, we made the lunches for the landscapers. Although, she gave them cokes instead of beer and told me I definitely needed to raise my prices!
Contact Info:
- Email: heather@heatherdavisdesigns.com
- Website: www.heatherdavisdesigns.com
- Instagram: @heatherdavisdesign
- Facebook: @heatherdavisdesigns
Image Credits
Lorelei Murphy Photography
