If you
were a typical teenage girl on an average Friday night in the fall, you would
be at your high school football game. You’re sitting on the bleachers with a
big group of your friends. You’re not even paying attention to the game. All
you care about is talking about the latest drama. You’re wearing a black North
Face jacket, dark blue Hollister skinny jeans, and chestnut Uggs. Your hair is
perfectly straightened and your face is covered with make up. In your left hand
you’re holding a Dunkin Donuts iced coffee and you have your iPhone in your
right.
You can
find those words everywhere. Words like that are tiring and overused all the
time. They’re not special or unique. They don’t have very much meaning, yet so
many people want to wear them on their body. Welcome to our generation and the
twenty first century. All you care about is fitting in and being popular. You
want to have a lot of friends and have the all of the jocks chase after you. When
you walk down the hall, You want to show everyone in your grade that you’re at
least in the middle class. You love to wear the most well known brands and
you’re not afraid to show them off.
There is
one teenage girl who does wear those typical brand names but isn’t afraid to
show her individuality. She spends a lot of time with her family, doesn’t wear
make up everyday, and loves to do outdoor activities. She wants to do well in
school and live a successful life. She doesn’t want to fit in with everyone
else, and three years ago she knew one clever way to make herself different
from the rest of her community.
Three
years ago you would go down a back alley behind two stores called “Hometown
Paint” and a dentist office. You walk around the corner and up the driveway.
Pull open the heavy glass door. Turn right for Subway. Turn left for the
Strawberry Patch. As you enter, you hear the faint chime and suddenly you’re in
a jewelry box. The store was crowded and a bit small. Jewelry covered almost
every inch of the store as if it were a maze. The walls of her shop were
painted a crème white, but her jewelry, all colors of the rainbow, gave off a
bodacious vibe. A middle-aged woman named Lisa Grieci would be huddled in the
corner either making jewelry or talking to a customer at the register. Every finger
had a ring, and bangle bracelets moved as she worked. If you were there to buy
or browse, it was hard to figure out where to start.
Grieci
opened The Strawberry Patch in 2001, and it was her very first store. She is
the only one who works there, and her jewelry is the only jewelry sold there. She
makes her jewelry in the store and at home when she gets a break from being a
mother and a wife. She lived in Franklin, Massachusetts until 2011, where she
then moved her store and family to Mattapoisett, Massachusetts. She changed the
name of her store to “lgrieci Designs,” but she still makes and sells the same
jewelry that she made when she owned the Strawberry Patch in Franklin.
Grieci
allows you to explore with her jewelry before asking if you need assistance
because she feels that the jewelry can sell for itself. Even though she didn’t
move from behind her desk, you could sense her bubbly and enthusiastic personality.
She never acted as if she was overworked or tired and she kept a positive
attitude. She always put the customer before herself, and if the customer
needed help Grieci wouldn’t hesitate to help the best way she could. She wanted
to build solid relationships between the customers and herself, which is how
many of her customers became her close friends. She knew how to make every
customer feel welcome and comfortable. She didn’t care if you took your time browsing
and encourages you to find a piece of jewelry that describes your personality.
Not only
were you surrounded by color, but also you were overwhelmed with words. Grieci
loves to include words in most of her jewelry, which is one reason why her
store in Franklin was very popular as well as her new expanding store in
Mattapoisett, Massachusetts. Grieci wants her jewelry to really speak to her
customers and make them feel emotion. Most of the words were encouraging and
inspiring. Words like hope, live, laugh, and love were engraved on bracelets,
while other words were written in metal. Some words were even engraved on
rings. Sometimes, even little beads with individual letters spelled out words.
Grieci even made me a necklace when I asked; it says “Believe” when I was a
sophomore in high school and having a tough time. The single word is written in
silver cursive. Grieci believes that the words shown through her jewelry are
what make her business successful. She also believes that words have taken over
the world and my generation is the most influenced. “If you think about it,
your generation is the generation of words, if that makes any sense to you,”
says Lisa Grieci with a grin spreading across her face on my computer screen. Even
though she was making jewelry at the same time, she still managed to perfectly
concentrate on the questions I was asking. “Words mean everything.”
Q: How did you get into the jewelry
making business?
A: I’ve actually
been making my own jewelry since I was 13 years old. I would just grab random
things around the house and somehow make jewelry out of it. I even remember one
time I had a rope necklace. (Laughs) Yeah, I definitely pulled that off. But I
have always had this passion for jewelry. It’s a great way to express yourself.
Plus, jewelry is simply just a cool form of fashion. I knew that making jewelry
was a hobby that I wanted to do before my hands get all old and wrinkly.
Q: Do you like owning your own store?
A: Well, it’s
hard work. Since I make all of the jewelry, I get very tired at the end of most
days. I go in to work around 10 am, and leave at 9 pm. I even make jewelry
while I am working. I guess you can say that I have become very good with multitasking
these days. But let me tell you, when you own a shop, make the jewelry, and
work alone, it can sometimes can very difficult. But it’s all worth it.
Q: That seems like so much! How can you
handle it all?
A: I don’t. What
makes it worth all the blood, sweat, and tears are the customers. I had quite a
few regulars at the Strawberry Patch, including [your mother]. The customers
are what keep me going and make me love my job even more. The customers help
make my business fun and exciting.
Q: Do you ever get bored making all of
that jewelry? I mean it must take a while to make a whole store’s worth.
A: The thing
about jewelry is that you can make it into anything you want. I want the
customers to try and express themselves in whatever way possible. My job is to
find that expression. Sure, sometimes making jewelry can be a bit tedious, but
thinking about who will wear it and for whatever reason makes it kind of
exciting. Sorry if that sounded a bit cheesy.
Q: Oh not at all! So one of the main
reasons why you make jewelry is for expression?
A: Oh, most
definitely! I mean, think about colors. People use colors to express themselves
or even how they’re feeling. Look at design. People use design as a way to show
who they are. Does that make sense? For instance, my daughter has probably
every color bracelet that you can imagine. I’m pretty sure she has every color
of the rainbow. I remember when my mother died; she wore her black bracelet for
a couple weeks. To her, the black showed grief, sorrow, and sadness.
Q: Is your daughter just as involved with
jewelry making are?
A: I mean, I
wouldn’t say she’s as crazy about it as I am. She’s a teenager, so she has her
own stuff she wants to do. But sometimes she does help me at the shop, and she
even helps me make jewelry on occasion. But like I said, she’s a teenage girl;
she loves to wear my jewelry instead of making it.
Q: Now I don’t know if you remember, but
you made a necklace for me about three years ago.
A: Oh yeah, I
remember your necklace. You wanted it to say, “believe” right?
Q: Yeah, I did! I can’t believe you
remember.
A: You know,
those necklaces are in style because they’re pretty and unique. They have the
cursive silver metal and you can have any word you want created out of it. I
thought the word you wanted was creative and mysterious. But you wanted the
word “believe” and during those two hours I was making it, I couldn’t help but
wonder what is the story behind it. May I ask why?
Q: Oh, I was bullied during that year.
That necklace you made me always reminded me to believe in myself.
A: See, that’s
what I love about this process. That single word helped you out. That is how
you expressed yourself. That’s why the word necklaces are a great idea. It’s
all about expression and how you choose to present yourself to the world. I’m
happy to hear that necklace was powerful enough to do that for you.
Q: Yeah, I always wear my necklace when I
am having a tough day. Do many other people ask you to make those necklaces?
A: The word necklaces
are the most popular in my shop right now. Some ask for their name, some ask
don’t. Those necklaces take a lot of time to make and carve out of the silver,
but seeing the customers faces when they receive them are worth it. Actually,
the other day a girl probably about your age asked for her necklace to say
“Daddy.” I asked her if she would mind telling me why she wanted it to say
“daddy,” and she replied how her father travels a lot for work and she misses
him all the time. To her, that necklace meant he was always with her even when
he’s far away. Pretty cool, huh?
Q: Yeah, that is incredible. Personally,
I think words are really powerful. What do they mean to you in relation to your
jewelry?
A: Words mean
everything. They tell a story. The best part is that it’s your own story,
right? I love making words with my jewelry. Besides the word necklaces, I have
breast cancer jewelry, sports jewelry, and inspirational words on the jewelry.
Like I have the “Live, Laugh, Love” bracelets, and then other necklaces or
bracelets with the words “Hope,” Inspire,” Achieve,” etc. People have great
responses to it and they sell fast, especially with your generation. If you
think about it, your generation is the generation of words, if that makes any
sense to you. You guys express yourself through words all the time if you think
about it. My jewelry store just adds and helps with that. And I am happy to
help you guys express your individuality with my jewelry. That is why I think
my job is so special.
