On a bluebird morning in late summer season, daylight sifted by means of the street-front home windows of Susan Shaw’s Broadway workplace. Strands of freshwater pearls and gilded cash flashed within the mild, adjoining to earrings and pendants laid with malachite, turquoise, lapis and onyx.
The San Antonio jeweler, who’s celebrating her forty fifth anniversary this yr, has constructed a formidable enterprise since launching her eponymous model in 1979. At the moment, her expansive line is accessible in additional than 2,000 shops in all 50 states and over 10 nations. Regardless of her success, Shaw’s journey to jewellery acclaim was not a linear path.
Rising up in Lockhart, creativity was an early ardour for the younger artist, who fondly remembers drawing and portray with watercolors as a toddler. “I feel you’re born with it,” she opined of her inventive calling. “You must have it in you.”
By 21, Shaw had graduated from the College of Texas at Austin, married her husband, was instructing artwork and promoting her personal work on the aspect. It was solely later, on the request of a buddy working in retail, that she started experimenting with equipment.
Initially, her process was to make a couple of items that locals might get pleasure from for town’s annual Fiesta celebrations. A festive chile pepper necklace was among the many first of the Southwestern-inspired items she created, which gained sweeping curiosity and wholesale inquiries; shortly thereafter, her jewellery was picked up by the Dallas Market Heart.
Propelled by an innate enterprise savvy, Shaw continued to problem herself within the years forward by making lovely, on a regular basis assertion items for ladies of all ages. At the moment, these items exude the designer’s distinct, elevated aesthetic, at a value level that’s extra accessible than conventional superb jewellery. Every design is made with high quality supplies like sterling silver and pure gold triple plating with gems, freshwater pearls, hand-painted beads and Italian glass.
Most spectacular, Shaw nonetheless makes each mildew by hand at her residence in San Antonio, giving her work a private contact in an in any other case saturated wholesale market. In truth, among the jeweler’s hottest items, like her assortment of bestselling crosses, fairly actually characteristic her fingerprints forged in gold.
Moreover, all the jewellery remains to be made to order and hand-assembled at her 1,800-square-foot Nineteen Twenties workshop on Hildebrand and Broadway. “I at all times knew that to be a wholesaler, you have to produce an merchandise {that a} retailer can generate profits on, and it must be totally different,” she stated. “By making my very own molds, my jewellery is totally different and distinctive.”
Over time, Shaw’s success has grown organically due to her devoted prospects, a few of which embrace big-name establishments just like the Smithsonian, Monticello and San Antonio’s Briscoe Western Artwork Museum. In 2018, her crew diversified their beforehand wholesale-only enterprise mannequin by introducing a direct-to-consumer department, which has averaged greater than 250% development every year.
Most not too long ago, the designer was honored on the 2024 Longhorn 100 Awards Celebration, which acknowledges the 100 fastest-growing companies led by College of Texas alumni. It’s a well-deserved accolade for Shaw, who turned her early ardour for artwork and creativity right into a full-blown household enterprise; her husband, Eric, and her son, Ryan, are each instrumental within the firm’s day by day operations. Now, 45 years later, the entrepreneur has a lot to be happy with, with a sterling document and a promising future that glimmers like her beloved golden jewellery.
Susan Shaw
susanshaw.com
