Token Jewelry: From hobby to livelihood | Local Business

The jewelry she built in her spare time caught the eye of coworkers, who would talk to if they could buy something like people earrings, necklaces or bracelets.

In her 20s at the time and operating a marketing task in Bend, Ore., Willger observed herself turning her pastime of jewelry building into a facet-gig.

She’d carry her home made jewellery to property events and unique activities when she was not doing the job her working day job.

In 2008, Willger moved back again to her hometown of Eau Claire with her husband Chris to be closer to their people and begin 1 of their very own.

At this level she was carrying out design and style operate for a magazine, which demanded stints of prolonged several hours, but still still left her no cost time to keep on generating jewellery.

She’d offer as a result of neighborhood shops which includes downtown boutique Isabelle & Co. and later on at Red’s Mercantile, also in Eau Claire.

In 2016 Willger made a decision to leap total-time into her jewelry small business by leasing a area in Artisan Forge Studios, a developing with studios and workplaces for artistic business owners in Eau Claire.

Term-of-mouth spread about Willger’s model, Token Jewelry, from individuals looking at it in nearby retailers, on social media and while shopping at Artisan Forge.

Soon right after opening her shop there, she expanded into a neighboring office environment and started recruiting individuals to work for her.

“The progress occurred truly quickly,” she mentioned.

And right after just a couple of several years leasing at Artisan Forge, she began on the lookout for a new property for the expanding jewellery enterprise.

Eclectica on Grand, an antiques store found on the edge of downtown was closing down around this time and set its building on the industry.

That location caught Willger’s eye as it is “a very little off the crushed route,” which she appreciated for currently being quieter than the heart of downtown and with superior parking out there.

“We liked the place,” Willger said.

She and her spouse acquired 106 W. Grand Ave. in January 2020, just a pair months right before COVID-19 became a pandemic in the U.S.

The first shock of the pandemic brought about them to tap the brakes and reassess to see how issues had been enjoying out in the financial system. But that pause didn’t last prolonged.

Willger and a person of her employees stored hectic making jewelry at their properties to fill orders that held coming in.

“We had been definitely fortuitous to see progress through that time,” she claimed.

She attributes that to the Eau Claire local community coming out to help area businesses all through the pandemic, and jewellery currently being some thing awesome that girls relished all through the pandemic. Donning a new ring, bracelet, necklace or established of earrings in the course of the pandemic felt superior, Willger claimed, even if it was although girls had been doing the job at household and sporting sweatpants alternatively of workplace attire.

Chris Willger — a streams biologist for the state who also happens to be useful about the household — saved plugging absent at renovating the shuttered antiques store to grow to be the new residence for Token Jewelry.

“We wholly redid the storefront,” Sarah Willger explained. “We took it down to the studs.”

She used her innovative design background to imagine the search of the new retailer and bought assist from a brother who operates as an architect. She was searching to develop a modern day environment, but retain the integrity of the building as perfectly.

Sunlight pours in via the substantial store windows, bounces off the white partitions and adds additional sparkle to the jewelry produced from gold, silver and gemstones.

A rug with tan, rose and sand shades at the centre of the space has a wooden and glass table on it with displays of necklaces.

One particular of the handful of remnants of the store’s earlier lifetime — a terrazzo ground speckled with white and comfortable, neutral colors — goes nicely with the environment.

And displayed through the shiny, nevertheless calming storefront are the many baubles designed by Willger and created by Token Jeweler’s team of local personnel.

As Willger describes it, her jewelry’s fashion is “minimal and effortless.”

The items are multipurpose more than enough to be worn with daily apparel or as equipment for additional formal events.

She’s seeking for her jewelry to appeal to all ages, as nicely — from learners to seniors.

In addition to working with it as a location to have her possess organization develop, Willger said she was drawn downtown since of the renaissance that part of Eau Claire has expert in current yrs.

“It’s cool to see what is transpired downtown,” she stated. “I wished to be a element of that.”

Aaron White, government director of Downtown Eau Claire Inc., said “destination businesses” such as regionally-manufactured jewellery retailers help draw folks to the space.

“It’s interesting to see solutions produced, marketed in the Chippewa Valley,” he mentioned. “It’s a good in good shape to that extent.”

Buyers coming downtown particularly to search and buy at the jewellery shops are likely to then halt into neighboring corporations, these as other shops, restaurants or cafes, he reported.

Token Jewelry’s retail store opening last year built it the next area jewelry brand name to stake its place in downtown Eau Claire in latest years. Hi Adorn, 315 Graham Ave., owned by Jess and Adam Gardner has been in the downtown area for practically five a long time.

Token Jewelry’s new arrival downtown has attained the small business accolades.

In February the new store had the scarce difference of getting household not a person, but two awards from DECI.

Individuals chosen Token Jewellery as the ideal new organization and most effective overall company in voting through DECI’
s internet site.

And the shop itself was a runner-up for the “Most Spectacular Glow Up” award for most effective aesthetic improvement of a downtown setting up. (The winner of that award was a mural painted on an exterior wall of tavern The Hearth Property.)

“It’s been a wonderful job, excellent reuse of that place,” White mentioned of the Token Jewellery storefront, which acquired support from a town personal loan fund for improving aged organization façades.

Readers of nearby enjoyment magazine Volume A single also voted Token Jewellery as “the very best put to purchase jewelry” in a latest poll.

For the first 11 decades of generating Token Jewellery, Willger was a just one-woman procedure. Progress at Artisan Forge prompted her to bring on a number of more men and women, typically friends-of-friends who have been interested in producing jewellery.

Then transferring to her new place merged with advancement in wholesale and online profits stored her employing more people today.

When her West Grand Avenue store opened in August, Willger experienced 16 staff members to craft jewelry, help operate the small business and handle orders.

Beyond customers acquiring Token Jewellery on their very own, Willger also sells to other retailers who have her products and solutions.

That part of the company has grown farther and more quickly than she’d imagined. Merchants located in all 50 states as effectively as Canada offer Token Jewellery. Not long ago she listened to from a

retail outlet in Eire that is intrigued in her wares as effectively.

“It just took place form of organically,” she said of the increasing get to of her brand.

Growing from a self-beginning maker into jogging a organization with staff has been demanding, Willger admits, but she stated it has also been excellent.

“The very last pair of a long time have been insane, but seemingly my husband and I thrive in chaos,” she reported. She’s a mother of 3 youthful boys — the youngest, Orion, is just a few months aged. Having a supportive

spouse, mothers and fathers who assistance out with child care and employees who can manage the shop when she’s away helped her a ton, Willger claimed.

Among it all, she is on the lookout to locate more time in her daily life to sit down and craft jewellery. It is some thing she’s often found to be pleasant and soothing.

“It’s form of an escape,” Willger claimed.