Good Neighbor Podcast: Tri-Cities
Bringing together local businesses and neighbor of the Tri-Cities region. Good Neighbor Podcast hosted by Skip Mauney helps residents discover and connect with your local business owners in and around The Tri-Cities.
Is your business serving the residents of Tri-Cities? Then, we need to talk! Visit gnpTri-Cities.com to schedule your free interview.
Good Neighbor Podcast: Tri-Cities
EP# 254: Forging Creativity: Inside Ignite Jewelry Studios with Jessica Blissett
What makes Jessica Blissett with Ignite Jewelry Studios a good neighbor?
Ever wondered what happens when passion, craftsmanship, and community intersect? In our latest episode, we journey into the gleaming world of Ignite Jewelry Studios with founder Jessica Blissett, who's redefining accessibility in jewelry-making through her unique three-pillar approach.
Jessica reveals how Ignite serves as a retail gallery showcasing local artisans, a communal workspace where members access professional tools (think "gym membership for jewelers"), and an educational hub offering hands-on workshops for all skill levels. What makes this story particularly compelling is Jessica's phoenix-like resilience—having opened her business in 2019, simultaneously starting a family, weathering the pandemic, and then losing her River Arts District studio in Asheville's devastating flood last year. Rather than surrendering, she secured a new downtown location and completely rebuilt within just eight weeks.
The conversation shatters common misconceptions about jewelry making being inaccessible or requiring extensive training. Jessica welcomes students as young as 13 to work with torches and has mentored beginners in their 70s who've gone on to launch successful businesses. Her passion stems from her own journey, starting with childhood fascination at bead stores and community college metalsmithing classes that introduced her to the transformative power of working with precious materials. The most captivating insight? How even reluctant participants discover unexpected joy when they create something beautiful with their own hands.
Ready to explore this fascinating intersection of craft, community, and entrepreneurship? Listen now, and if you're visiting Asheville, mark your calendar for Ignite's workshops where you can experience the unique satisfaction of metalsmithing firsthand. Book your seat through ignitejewelrystudios.com and discover why Jessica believes everyone deserves the chance to feel that special sense of accomplishment that comes from creating wearable art.
To learn more about Ignite Jewelry Studios go to:
https://www.ignitejewelrystudios.com/
Ignite Jewelry Studios
(775) 338-3880
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Skip Monty.
Speaker 2:Well, hello everyone and welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. So I hope everybody's doing well. We've got a great show for you here today with a very, with a unique guest and business here in the studio. So I'm really psyched to learn all about them and what they do, and I'm sure you will be too, because today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, ms Jessica Blissett, who is the owner operator of Ignite Jewelry Studios. Jessica, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:Thanks.
Speaker 2:We're glad to have you. Like I said, you got a pretty unique business. I'm excited to learn all about it. So, if you don't mind, why don't you kick us off by telling us what you do?
Speaker 3:So Ignite Jewelry Studios is a communal jewelry space, all-inclusive. We have a retail gallery where we feature local and regional artisans' jewelry for sale, where we feature local and regional artisans jewelry for sale. We also have the studio side of the space where we have residents that can access the space, kind of like a gym membership, but they come in and can use the tools and the equipment for, you know, just creative hobby or maybe their own jewelry businesses. And thirdly, we teach workshops and classes here. So kind of the three parts right there the gallery, the studio residence side, and then the workshops and classes.
Speaker 2:Wow, I didn't know there were jewelry workshop classes. That's very cool. Yeah definitely Are there a lot of businesses like yours.
Speaker 3:Are there a lot of businesses like yours. There's probably a few more kind of popping up around the country. I first opened Ignite back in 2019. And even today, most people say, oh, we don't have anything like this in our town and I feel like I've got. When I designed it, it was really something that I thought a lot about, just for the reason being I've been in the industry a long time and it was the things that I always felt I wish I would have had back in the day when I was first learning or trying to learn things, also trying to sell stuff. There was always just it was a challenge within the field.
Speaker 2:Wow, so you're giving back to other folks to give them what you didn't have? Well, you kind of touched on this, but how did you get into the jewelry business?
Speaker 3:You know I first started back as a little girl. I just wanted to go to the bead stores and make things, and so that kind of led into as I got a little older, learning doing some little classes at some of the bead shops and learning some. You know different skills with like wire wrapping and you know how to attach a class and different ways of doing more beaded style jewelry. And then in my early 20s I just was still curious and always wanting to do new stuff and so I took a jewelry arts class at a community college and that was my first introduction to more of the metal smithing side of the field. So torches and you know all the bigger equipment, you know sawing metal and so putting it all together.
Speaker 2:Oh wow, very interesting. Well, what are some? And I'm sure there are some myths or misconceptions in the jewelry business.
Speaker 3:You know, I guess, like the idea that you know it's maybe an untouchable thing, that it's something that can be, you know, too expensive or just you know there's nowhere to access it. I think a lot of people, if they've only had experience more in like fine jewelry or walking into a jewelry store, it doesn't feel very community driven, it doesn't feel like somewhere where you know somebody is going to, you know talk or share about some of the trade stuff, and so you know there is ways around it. There are community colleges, there are some other schools that are offering stuff outside of, you know, going through like more of a traditional, like BFA degree in metals or something, lot of smaller spaces that you can start to learn things, and then, once you get a little bit of a foundation, you know, then it opens up a lot more avenues where you can, you know, just sign up for smaller classes at you know other teaching facilities or even learn online. Now there's a lot, especially with COVID, a lot of the. The instructors had to switch and so they did things like recordings and YouTube and things like that, and so so there is a you know there is a lot of access to it and anyone can do it.
Speaker 3:I have. You know I bring in young kids to. You know, to a degree you know it's gotta be safety, but I do have, you know, I say I say 13 and 13 and up, and you know, as long as they're listening and paying attention and they have an adult, you know, taking the class with them. Like they'll actually get to use the torch in some of my classes and you know I've had first just some fun stamping classes. You know, get that all the way down to six years old. But I have, um, you know I have residents. I'm in it. I'm in a new phase we can touch on it because I was part of the disaster in Asheville, which is where I'm located, and so I'm in a new space now because my studio did flood last year, storm, and so a lot of my prior residents and such they had to move on and do things. So I'm just now bringing people back. I just opened about two weeks ago in the new space in downtown.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow.
Speaker 3:But prior to that, I mean, I had a resident in her 70s and she didn't even start doing it until she was almost 70 years old, and so you know, and now she's got her own business in the field and loves it, so it's something that everyone can do.
Speaker 2:Wow, Now were you in the River Arts District prior.
Speaker 3:I was. I was in the River Arts District.
Speaker 2:I was.
Speaker 3:Fortunately I was on the second story of you know of a really old building. It was built back in the 1800s so it did stand. But the water. Even in my upper studio, which was about 24, 25 feet up in there, it still got about a foot of water through my space.
Speaker 3:Wow, wow so everything had to be removed in a hurry and just stored, and we all have been, you know, in our different forms. But eventually I found a new space in downtown, my old building. As much as I loved it and I had no intention of ever leaving, it's still not. It's not ready, and there's really no date yet on when it even might be ready for people to inhabit it again.
Speaker 2:So wow, I know the River Arch district just got hammered. I mean hard. I've talked to a lot of folks but you know Asheville and all the folks that live in this region are very resilient.
Speaker 3:We are.
Speaker 2:Look at you. Yeah, I mean you're here, you're in a new spot and just reopen, so that's awesome.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, you just have to keep going. And I know this. I, you know, I thought about, well, what if I didn't do it? But it just, you know, it seems like it's what I do. It's what I've been doing for my whole life. It was working great. I just had to find a new space and shift a few things around. Here I am.
Speaker 2:Got to pivot. Got to pivot Absolutely. Who are your target customers? I imagine you talk about with a torch, that young guys would be very interested if you get to play with a torch.
Speaker 3:That's the thing. It's funny because, you know, I think for as far as like what I call my weekly workshops, and those are usually Thursday, friday, saturdays, but with summer coming on, I also probably add a few more in here and there during the weeks.
Speaker 3:But, those ones are geared towards people with no experience at all, basically looking for something to do they want. And then they're going to, they're going to see that and they're going to say, oh look, we can make some jewelry. And you know, usually the women are like, yeah, let's make some jewelry. And so they sign up, and so a lot of times it'll be couples or you know whoever comes in. But it's funny when you see, you know sort of some of that. Like, some of the men will come in and just at first be like, ah, you drug me to this jewelry class, like, and then by the time they walk in the door they look around and they're like, wow, this is, this is pretty neat, there's a lot of tools in here, and you know. And then they get to use the torches and so it's.
Speaker 3:It's diverse, I would say. You know, I get a lot of different groups. So I don't think there's necessarily a type, but I think you know people that enjoy doing stuff with their hands and feeling, you know, kind of accomplished. Now you know, I can get anyone through a class and they're going to walk away with their you know their piece of jewelry. I always say that and knock on wood at least I have, and you know a lot of people may think that it's something that's beyond their ability, but it's not. It just it has to do with just taking it one step at a time. So I would say you know anyone that's looking to come for a visit in Asheville and wants to try out something new or maybe they've even had a little experience in it, but it's been a while they can come make something here.
Speaker 2:Very cool, love it, love it, love the productivity of it too. It's fun and you can make stuff you know. Yeah, so outside of work, if there is outside of work, what do you like to do for fun?
Speaker 3:Oh, I play soccer sometimes. Right now we're kind of in an off season, but I've played soccer my whole life too, so that's a fun one. Just some local rec leagues. We've got a pretty good soccer community here, also very heavily hit by the storm, because the uh, the fields were completely flooded. They were right there in Swannanoa by that bridge that is gone, and so we've scattered, you know, every field you can find in the whole area. But it it came back, so that's been nice and, um, you know, trying to get out in nature a bit. That's been a bit challenging post-disaster because a lot of places are still getting cleaned up and such. And then I got two little ones and so we play a lot and doing fun things with them, doing little festivals and stuff like that on the playgrounds.
Speaker 2:Very cool, yeah, Best answer. Always time with family Soccer's good too though. Swan and Owen Black Mountain. Yeah, got hit hard too.
Speaker 3:They did.
Speaker 2:It's very unfortunate, but they're coming back too.
Speaker 3:They're coming back too. Yeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 2:So what you already kind of touched on this I was going to say, what can you describe a hardship or a life challenge that you've overcome, either personally or professionally? But you mentioned the flood, obviously is a big one.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, mentioned the flood obviously is a big one. Yeah, you know, the flood that was uh. That one felt like it was sort of sort of just like a real punch in the gut. Um, when I opened this business actually I was I also met what became my future husband and started a family at the same time, and so it's been a wild ride really. Since the day I opened my business, I felt like, whew, it's been a lot of hurdles to climb and negotiating of you know time and energy and you know capacities, and COVID did not help. So there was that one and I really it felt like I'd kind of come, come to the other side of all of it and things were getting pretty smooth and a whole bunch of things were falling in place, with scheduling for young kids, schooling and all that, only to have the disaster hit and I was like, oh, and that was really really something.
Speaker 3:Initially I didn't know if I was going to come back. I mean, it just is hard to wrap your head around something like that. It takes a lot of time, and so it was. It took me a couple months to even really have a clear picture of what you know life looked like and you know, even for anything of like what our community looked like, what our town looked like, you know we really nobody knew because there was so much, you know, destruction and devastation here and so but yeah, I feel like you know, I've made it to the other side.
Speaker 3:I've opened in a new space. The amount of work that's happened over the last seven, almost eight weeks since I signed a lease in a new space in downtown has been unreal and I just have to take deep breaths, a lot and take, you know, the time. There's still a lot of little things, but my grand reopening, this might be done or not, put out there. I don't know when this goes live, but uh, that's next Saturday, um the 21st, from four to 8 PM and so that's sort of like hey, I'm back and, you know, would love to welcome anybody who wants to come see and if they're interested in metalsmithing, you know I also offer skills classes. I have a metalsmithing one-on-one course that I offer four to five times a year and that gets you all all the skills to kind of have a good foundation in metalsmithing and and so you can learn and either start setting up, buying tools and setting up at home or, you know, join as a resident in our space as well.
Speaker 2:Very cool. I'm so intrigued, like the metalsmithing, I would love to you know.
Speaker 3:You'll have to come take a class, yeah definitely, definitely.
Speaker 2:So, jessica, if you could think of one thing you would like our listeners to remember about Ignite Jewelry Studios, what would that be?
Speaker 3:It's a fun and very. It's one of those things that makes you feel accomplished. Um, you know you overcome a lot of tiny little challenges with everything you make and so it's really, really, really um ignites a place where you can really come and um just get into the flow and do something. That, even with frustrations and all like it, can really make you feel like accomplished, that you've done something and yeah.
Speaker 2:Very cool, very cool. Well, for those of us who are interested, we'd like to come check it out. How can they learn more?
Speaker 3:They can go to the website ignitejewelrystudioscom. You can, you know, read about the different things. You know we've got our gallery here with lots of amazing jewelry for sale. We've got the workshops and there's a calendar on there. You can sign right up and so. And then you know, there's some information on there about residencies and such.
Speaker 2:Okay, awesome, awesome. And can you book a class on your website?
Speaker 3:Yep you can go right through that and you can book a class, and so Awesome, awesome.
Speaker 2:And can you?
Speaker 3:book a class on your website, yep, you can go right through that and you can book a class, and so Awesome, awesome.
Speaker 2:Well, jessica, I know you're busy and we managed to get through the interview without somebody coming in the store, I think.
Speaker 3:I know it's been a bad thing.
Speaker 2:We want to get you some customers in there, but I do appreciate it. I appreciate you know what you do and the time you took to be on our show and to talk to our listeners. And speaking of listeners, I want to remind everybody June 21st, from 4 to 8 pm. This podcast will be out before then. So I want to remind everybody to make sure and check it out. Come to the re-grand opening of Ignite Jewelry Studios on. That's Saturday, june 21st, correct?
Speaker 2:Yep All right Sounds good. Thanks again, and we want to wish you and your family and Ignite Jewelry Studios all the best moving forward.
Speaker 3:All right, well, thank you so much.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you.
Speaker 3:I'm meeting some people from up around the Tri-Cities.
Speaker 2:All right, awesome. Well, very good, and maybe we can have you back on the show sometime. Sounds good.
Speaker 3:All right.
Speaker 2:Thanks so much.
Speaker 1:All right, thank you. Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnptri-citiescom. That's gnptri-citiescom. That's gnptry-citiescom, or call 423-719-5873.