My jewelry making journey started as a hobby when I was 13 years old, visiting a huge bead shop in The Mother City, Cape Town, South Africa.
In my last year of self home schooling, I obtained a distinction in mathematics and computer studies and received a scholarship to study Computer Programming hence I became a computer programmer.
I worked very hard, put in lots of hours, especially after hours, then one evening, I was in accident, whereby I fell 6 floors in a lift at work. Recovery took 2 years and yes, I use lifts today! This was my life changing event, to slow down & reflect, i.e. not work at all hours & to do things that I enjoy. Now I go swimming and keep my hands busy by sewing, candle making and trying out other crafts, however jewelry remains my favorite hobby.
To continue about me, at 27, unexpectedly I met someone, 2 weeks later he proposed for marriage, 6 months later we married! 10 years down the track and we still extremely happily married. Within this time we had 2 children, born in different countries, as well as made this crazy move to Australia with only 3 suitcases!!!
Today we settled in Australia. It was at work one day that I saw a poster with the cutest baby booties captioned
pedrospout.etsy.com, a few weeks later I looked at the website and was introduced to the ETSY community.
A few months later I visited a beads and crafts exhibition, bought way too many beads and decided to sell my excess jewelry made on ETSY, hence using my name as a store name. I listed the items and made my first sale in a few weeks.. 3 years on and my jewelry store is able to help support me, while on my extended maternity leave with our second baby and who knows, what lies ahead.
Currently, my week day starts waking up at 5am, to reply to US, UK and Canada requests and then working on orders, until 7am. I then wake my 6 year old daughter, help get her ready for school, my husband, will join us for breakfast and we take turns taking her to school. On arriving back home I take care of and play with our now very busy under one year old son, When he takes a nap or two, I complete orders and prepare them for shipment or I take photographs of the new jewelry or items that I'm working on, or sometimes I just nap with him!
Throughout the day I will relist a few listings, as this somehow helps new visitors see these listings. Sometimes at night I will complete or package orders that I could not complete earlier the day, as well as list products and perhaps source for materials online, etc.
On my way to fetch my daughter or our way home we will stop at the Post office up to pick up mail and ship out the customer orders.
While on maternity leave I try to spend as much time as I can with my two children and husband, the children are growing up so quickly and do not want to miss too much. My hobby has turned business according to our tax man, so in my shop time, I do whatever I can for my customers.
RBJohnson Designs has evolved into a jewelry store to provide custom affordable jewelry as gifts, especially for brides-to-be, their bridesmaid, maid of honour, flower girl, sisters, best friends, mothers, etc.
All my items are safely packaged and packed in my home studio on the Gold Coast in sunny Queensland, Australia and shipped to mostly the US, Canada, UK, Australia and then rest of the world ...
.JPG "Birds Nest Necklace Gold")
