Jonesy Wood was thrilled to see her necklace on a celebrity.
An Instagram photo showed Countess Luann de Lesseps, who stars on “The Real Housewives of New York,” talking to actress Helen Mirren while wearing a waist-length leather tassel designed by Wood. Seeing it was “pretty surreal,” Wood says.
“She (de Lesseps) saw an acquaintance of mine wearing one and loved it so she contacted me and I sent her one. Now she just loves my stuff. Reba McEntire purchased a few of my necklaces at a store in Nashville and Kelly Ripa was given one by a friend and apparently wore it on her show.”
When a celebrity is seen wearing your designs, whether it’s jewelry or fashions, it pretty much seals the deal that you’re good at what you do, says Wood, who first showed interest in making jewelry when in junior high school at the now-closed Senter School on Holtzclaw Avenue.
“My science teacher wore this beaded necklace to school and I loved it,” says Wood, 32. “That weekend I went to the mall and bought a bunch of beads and got to work. I made them for my friends, friends of friends and more.”