Name: Erin
Web Site: http://www.ninadesigns.com/staff/07Erin.html
Bio: I moved to the East Bay at the beginning of 2008 to explore what my options were outside of my bubble of Santa Barbara. Through all my ups and downs, my family at Nina Designs has made every minute worth it!
Posts by Erin:
Silver Beads Bring Jewelry Inspiration
December 30th, 2009With so many silver beads and charms around me, sometimes I feel silly for wanting more. I often make requests for a shape or image I want and hope that customers call and email saying they would like the same thing so that it might get produced. I’ve learned, however, that the easiest way for me to satisfy my craving for new and exciting items is to gold plate them. I also love oxidizing silver for a less expensive alteration. It is amazing how much the feel of an item can change by switching up the color of the metal.
Recently a customer had the small elephant bead gold plated. I loved it so much I sent some out with our next gold plate order even though I didn’t know how I was going to work with them. When my elephant beads returned from the platers it was a Friday and I rushed home with a couple feet of silver chain to make something special to wear that night. I was going to just space the five elephants out on the chain and oxidize the chain to make them pop. I realized after I cut the chain to the spacing I liked that I didn’t want my middle elephant to lay on his side so I dug through my bead collection to work around not having any headpins handy. I found a small green teardrop agate, a discontinued Nina Designs bead and with a few small gemstones made one of my most favorite necklaces to date.
To read more on how you can have any of our silver items plated in 24K gold, please see our Gold Special Order Policy.
Inspired Elephant Necklace
Detail of Elephant Drop
Detail of Elephant Beads
Sterling Service
October 28th, 2009Because we have a large assortment of silver and vermeil style jewelry findings on the internet, some customers come to the conclusion that Nina Designs is a larger operation than we are in reality. From our namesake, Nina , down to the person you reach on the phone, we are an office of 10 full time employees and a sporadic cast of part time employees and interns when we are blessed with the extra help. Although we each have various titles to our employment to keep the office running efficiently, every one of us can count pulling, invoicing and packing orders as regular office duties. The person you may reach on the phone with a question is the same person that could potentially be getting your order out the door. We have an “About Us” section on our website that spotlights each of the Nina Designs taskmasters and is great way to get to know the person earnestly getting your order out to you.
Nina Designs Team
The ABC’s of Alphabet Charms
September 2nd, 2009Not too long ago we decided to start carrying our alphabet charms in gold vermeil style. Before this I would scramble through leftovers from gold-plate special orders to find the A or the T or (gasp!) the Z that a customer desperately needed and hoped that we had plated one too many. I use the alphabet charms when I need to make a quick and cute design that’s sure to be a crowd pleaser. Over the past couple of months we have come out with a bevy of new silver charm designs that make great accompaniments to our alphabet charms.
I recently used our majestic lion charm with a M for my cousin’s birthday present. Her name is Mia and she was born in August (making her a Leo). The alphabet charms also look adorable paired with an image that starts with that letter. I love the imagery of the alphabet because when I was young it gave me a sense of pride and accomplishment. Now that I am older it reminds me of a carefree and fun childhood that I escape to when wearing my alphabet charm necklace.
Cute Alphabet Charms
Personalized Necklace
The Silver Chain That Ties Us Together
July 8th, 2009I imagine our customers’ hearts flutter like a million sterling butterfly charms when the little white box appears at their doors. They open up the package to reveal vibrant colors of tissue that resemble our silk cord collection and nestled within something better than the candy, the bag of jewelry supplies. For our customers the joy is in the package. For me the joy is having a fulfilling and rewarding job at Nina Designs.
It helps that Nina and Leah know how to keep us happy workers. Besides providing an office stocked with wonderful silver pendants, silver charms and silver chain (and all their silver vermeil counterparts) they stock our kitchen full of delicious treats to keep our blood sugar up and our minds focused. They even show how much they appreciate us with wonderful treats to celebrate the day we are born. We recently had the honor of ushering Juanita into another year with a beautiful cake that just happened to have accents similar to our lovely curliecue vine. What a sweet treat!
Tasty Treats at Nina Designs
Happy Birthday Juanita!