What do you do with all your favorite jewelry pieces when they
fall apart? Well of course, we simply place them at the bottom
of the jewelry box with the promise to “get them repaired
soon”. As we all know, soon never comes. I had a jewelry box
full of broken jewelry that I just could not discard. I decided to
attempt to repair it myself. After all, what did I have to lose?
To my surprise, I was able to repair one piece after another
until all of my jewelry was made new! Now that my confidence
was at its highest level, I decided to take it a step further and
try to make something from scratch. Wala, success! This is the
process that birthed my business. Although making jewelry
was an after-work relaxation method for me as I was in the
sunset of my 35 years of working for the Federal Government,
it soon morphed into a full-fledged small business.
My name is Cassandra Denise Pelham and I am the owner of
Essential Designs by Denise LLC. The primary focus of my
business is the design and creation of uniquely beautiful jewelry
pieces. Secondly, I re-purpose vintage jewelry into modern
pieces. The third tier of my business involves creating custom
jewelry pieces by working closely with the client. Lastly, I craft
metal into both jewelry and other standalone artistic pieces
using a Mexican artform entitled “Repujado” which is metal
embossing using specific hand tools.