When Adrienne Lee Wiley graduated from Notre Dame High School in 1995, her plans were to get a degree in communications at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and become a public relations representative for a company or nonprofit organization.
She did, in fact, earn a communications degree at UTC in 2000 and worked in public relations for a nonprofit in Atlanta. For a while.
Eventually, though, she ended up using her public relations skills to promote her own talent -- making jewelry.
Now, 20 years after high school graduation, Wiley lives with her husband in San Francisco, where she owns a wholesale accessories company that markets the Frolick line of jewelry she launched in 2005. She also owns five retail boutiques, and she's written a how-to book, "Adventures in Wholesale."
Wiley's pieces are sold at Frankie & Julian's on Frazier Avenue. Suzanne West, owner of the boutique, says Wiley's jewelry, as well as her new line of scarves, leather purses and totes, are popular with customers.
"She has such an impressive personality and immense knowledge of jewelry and fashion," says West. "I love the look of her jewelry. I have customers who like to be called when her shipments come in. Almost all of her pieces retail under $200 and that makes for a fast turnover."
Wiley says West is the one who told her about trade shows, giving her one of the best avenues for selling her jewelry nationwide.
"Until I met her, I had been taking my jewelry everywhere I went," Wiley says. "I stopped in her store to see if she was interested in selling my jewelry. She was, but she also told me about trade shows. I didn't know they existed. At that time, though, I had jewelry in about 125 stores. Today it's in more than 700 nationwide."
Wiley, 37, who was recently in Chattanooga visiting her parents, discussed her road to success.
Q: How did you go from working in public relations at a nonprofit to owning your own company?
A: It didn't happen overnight. It took about 10 years. After I was laid off in Atlanta, I moved back to Chattanooga and got a job at Provident, where I worked as a group sales coordinator in a cubicle. It wasn't my thing. I knew I'd be happier in Atlanta, where my boyfriend was, so Provident transferred me to their offices in Atlanta. But while I was in Chattanooga, I needed a way to be creative so I took a jewelry-making class at Hunter Museum. I found that I loved making jewelry.
Adrienne Wiley displays three of her clutches at Frankie & Julian's boutique Friday on Frazier Avenue. Wiley lives in California and sells her creations in America, France, the United Kingdom and more.Q: What led you to quit your Provident job?
A: Making jewelry had become a hobby that I loved. I needed to do something creative because the cubicle was killing me. I had made a ton of jewelry and wondered what I was going to do with it all. One of my co-workers said I should sell it to stores, but I knew nothing about how to do that. I didn't even know if I needed a license. (I didn't.) So, during my lunch hour, I started going to stores in the area and showing my jewelry to owners. Turns out, they liked my pieces. At first, they took the pieces on consignment but soon began buying it. After six months, I was doing really well and decided I could turn it into a business.
Q: What steps did you take?
A: I saved up some money, bought a bunch of stones, made sure my website was all set and got business cards. I was nervous, but I had gotten a really good response from store owners. The transition from consigning my pieces to selling them went smoothly. It gave me confidence.
Q: How do you describe your jewelry?
A: I call it vintage-inspired with a little bit of whimsy.
Q: Now that your business is successful, do you still design and make it by hand?
A: I make samples and a team makes the multiples. I don't do casting. Things that are in settings, I sketch it out and send the sketches and the stones to a caster in Los Angeles.
Q: How do you come up with ideas?
A: It's a challenge. I started out using a lot of vintage components. I made it all on my kitchen table then took it to the buyers, and they would select the pieces they wanted to sell. But when I began making jewelry to sell on a larger scale and getting orders from stores like Anthropologie and J. Crew, I had to stop selling individual pieces. What I do now is find a vintage piece I like and reproduce it. Other times I may use vintage-inspired -- like a certain cut of stone, such as art deco -- and add a little infusion of vintage.
Q: Do you incorporate jewelry trends in your own pieces?
A: Sometimes I see things in magazines that are trendy and make them into something affordable to the average person. When I first started, I'd hop on a trend, such as the mixed-metals pieces. Even though it was trendy, and you saw it on models, it was hard for people to incorporate in their own wardrobes. I learned how to work things like that into my own pieces to make it wearable.
Q: Do you make other accessories?
A: I recently began designing leather bags and totes.
Contact Karen Nazor Hill at khill@timesfree press.com or 423-757-6396.