Invest in your creative talents!

While in college Storey Hieronymus Hauck discovered she had a talent for jewelry-making. A few years later, she was inspired to begin a line of jewelry called the joolz— a collection of one-of-a-kind and limited-edition pieces made from hardware. Then, earlier this year, came the grand opening of her boutique, “turtle,” a shop in the South End of Boston, where she showcases both trendy and unconventional clothing, jewelry, and accessories, by emerging designers and artists around the world. As Storey tells it, it's taken a lot of persistence and prayer to get to this point in her career, but it's been worth the effort and, well ... a lot of fun. Teen Herald contributor, Hilary Wise, recently interviewed Storey at her boutique.

Have you always loved making things?

Yes, I can remember making things and putting things together from the time I was really young. The process of making things has always interested me, too. There are a lot of people who create things from materials that are found in their raw form. I've learned to do that through silversmithing, but I've also liked the process of turning old things into a new shape or idea.

When I started making my hardware jewelry, I was standing in a hardware store one day, looking around, seeing all these fun shapes and colors: pink and purple washers, red faucet handles, silver skate keys. And I started thinking how things that are used for one thing or another could be put together to make something totally different. I thought, “Wow, this could be some fun jewelry.”

When you're creating your jewelry, do you have a vision of the piece before you create it, or does it just develop naturally?

That's a good question. Sometimes I play with different materials and try to fit different shapes together. Other times, an idea just pops into my head, and I carry it around for a while, and work it through in my head. Then, all of a sudden, the idea spills out and I start making the piece, and work through the design challenges at that point. With hardware, you have to worry about wearability — how the pieces will lie on your neck or wrist, how big or heavy they are — and the ways the pieces attach to one another. I use a process of cold joining, which means that no heat or torches are involved to connect the pieces. I put them together the way they would naturally attach to each other, like fitting a screw into a nut, for instance. One of the last pieces I made was necklace with electrical ties. The ties attached by snapping into each other, and I held them in place with silver crimp beads. It took me thirteen hours to make.

What was the inspiration to become an artist?

I haven't always considered myself an artiest. In fact, I had taken some art classes growing up and had this idea that being an artist meant that you had to draw well. However, I've discovered that being an artist, in its broadest sense, means using your talents to showcase and express beautiful and lovely ideas. As an “artist” you usually need to be expressing these ideas through some sort of medium, so when I found that I had this natural talent for making things, which I could then apply to jewelry-making. I was able to get over this idea that I couldn't be an artist.

When you're in the process of making jewelry, do you ever feel uninspired or limited?

I did reach a point where it seemed like I had exhausted all the possibilities of how things could connect. But whenever there are limitations like this, I put my foot down and say, “No!” Because God is limitless, the ideas we get from Him are unlimited. Then I discover new or different ways of doing things.

How have you seen the effects of prayer in your business?

I think the most visible effect has been being able to overcome any kind of limitation. When I was first working on being a full-time jewelry-maker, I was also working full time in an office, and I started to feel this urge to be creative again. I prayed a lot to know that God's will would be done, and that this would result in a good solution for me and everyone. Eventually, I ended up being freed from my job unexpectedly, and could go forward and pursue my art. During the past year my boutique has come about as a result of what I learned in my jewelry business, and the whole process has been like breaking through another set of limitations for me. Now I'm at a point where I can do my jewelry if I want to, and I also have a place to sell it. And I have the opportunity to work with other artists, and appreciate their work. I love that.

Another challenge for me was my concern that making jewelry wasn't the noblest thing I could be doing, like feeding the hungry, for instance. But it was my talent. The key to helping me see that it was important not to waste it was the parable of the talents in the Bible. The story is about a man who gives his servants different talents, which is actually money in their case. But I like to think of them as our gifts. He gives one guy five talents, another guy two talents, and the third guy one talent. The servant with the one talent is afraid to do something with it. Instead, he decides that he's going to bury his talent in the ground and save it. And, in the end, he loses this one talent. The other servants invest their talents, and they get more.

This parable made me see that using our talents is a way of expanding them and perpetuating something good. Burying them, or not using them, is the surest way to lose them, because they don't grow. They shrivel away.

I realized that maybe even if my work wasn't feeding the hungry, my talent was something that was unique to me, and I was using it to bless others. I think that is what has come out of this store. It's been a way to support artists and designers, and to share the natural talents that I have.

I've noticed throughout your store, you have so many creations from different designers. How did you meet them?

I started doing some jewelry shows in New York, and attending shows across the country — meeting artists who were starting out, just like I was. So, before I even knew I was goingto have a store, I started picking up business cards of artists and designers I liked. When I started my jewelry-making business and was learning how to market my work and sell it, it was really tough. But because I had learned so much and gone through that whole process, I felt like I could help other artists do the same, and support them not only with what I had learned, but also through the creation of a store community — a community of designers, artists, and customers who have great ideas to share and a natural inclination to support what is individual and good.

What are some of the challenges you face as a businesswoman?

Some of the challenges have had a lot to do with fear — fear of not having the resources or the money to make the business go, fear of not being able to have the products at the right time and the right place, or of not being able to have the right mix of things that people are going to want to buy.

Every step of the way, I've had to realize that, just as a seed has within itself all that it needs, my business has everything it needs to be successful. When you think of an orange seed, you can picture the orange tree and it bearing fruit. Everything comes from this tiny seed. It has, within itself, what it needs to become a tree, before it even begins to grow. My husband and I have applied this idea to my business.

In the creation of a piece of clothing, for instance, there was a cottonseed, and someone was motivated to plant it. Then someone was inspired to make it into cloth, and weave it into something that could be used in clothing. And then these designers have wonderful ideas about how to use the cloth. To then end up with a product or a piece of clothing in my store that nobody wants to buy is a limitation again. I have to protest, and say, “Well, that's ridiculous.” If there's been this idea all along, then it continues to grow and progress under Cod's law.

The beauty and grace represented in the pieces that I sell are things that people want in their lives, things people have a natural attraction to. So I think of every piece in my store as having an owner before the owner even walks in, because the whole process, from beginning to end, is supported by God. And that includes everyone — me as owner, my customers, my designers, and all the people who are interested in my business. The process can't be interrupted in any way, because what comes from God can only represent what's good. That's helped me a lot. It's the spiritual foundation on which my husband and I have been building the business.

I've seen this thinking process have visible effect, too. Several times a particular piece has sat around for a while. After I've picked it up and thought about the qualities it represents, the next day it has sold.

What advice do you have for teenagers who want to express their creativity?

Don't be afraid to express it! Each one of you is creative in a different way. I remember that when I was a teenager, there was a lot of pressure to conform to certain ideas and be a part of a group. But if you can be secure in who you are as a child of God, and know that you are an individual who is here to do some good in the world, you can conquer that fear and bless humanity with your unique talents.