I'm Finally Doing It

I've had a business idea in my head for about 5 years, and I'm finally starting to do it.

A friend and I were talking about a missing segment in the LGBT jewelry market, and that segment was men's jewelry. What I'm going to say is going to come off controversial, but that's not my intent, so take it on face value.

LGBT jewelry skews a certain direction, namely flashy bright colorful and attention-grabbing. That's fine if you're more of a flamboyant type, but there's a large segment of the LGBT population, namely men, who don't want to wear rainbows and chrome and bright plastic. That's where our idea comes in. My thought was that I wanted to make an jewelry line for LGBT men who wanted something classy, understated, and even, to a degree. minimalist. I've designed a few pieces and they've been hard to get to production, mainly because jewelry making on a small scale is hard, but that won't stop me.

My former partner and I came up with some great stuff, but in the end it never came to fruition and I forgot about it, but when I started 3D printing, the idea popped back into my head and now I'm finally making actual designs while simultaneously learning the abilities of my new laser. The first design is the bisexual logo on a dog tag with a nickel-plated ball chain and I can't be happier with how it turned out (it's in my shop here). I have a few more in my head that I'm about to start working on but there's something percolating in my mind right now and it's the sense that I've finally "started."

Making stuff is my thing now. I love making things, designing things, and learning new things, but this particular endeavor fills me with a sense of pride (no pun intended) like none of the others because I've always had a love of making jewelry but it's something I just threw aside because I never had the right tools to make it happen but I definitely feel like I do now.

I don't know if this idea is ever going to take off, or if there's any interest in it that isn't my own, but there's only one way to find out and that's actually making the items and seeing what sells. Even if it fails, I'll never feel bad for not having followed a dream of mine.