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The beauty of nature, the brilliance of gemstones and
the interplay of colors mingle and merge in the unique pieces Laura
Buckner creates for Happy Woman Jewelry. Working with a dazzling
range of gems that includes turquoise, tourmaline, quartz, onyx,
jade, abalone and freshwater pearls, Buckner’s artistic visions
take form in her roomy, well-lit home studio.
 Her
finished pieces, which can sell for up to $500 or more depending
upon the materials used, are typically one-of-a-kind or limited
editions. What inspires her creations are the natural wonders and
pastoral views right outside the front door of the large, airy house
she shares with her husband and teenage son in rural Mendocino County,
Calif. “You can’t help being inspired, living someplace so beautiful,”
she says.
An artist since childhood, Buckner has worked
in many mediums over the years, including spinning, weaving, printmaking,
doll-making and basketry. She took up jewelry making in earnest
in the 1980s and launched Happy Woman Jewelry in 1995, after operating
two separate and successive jewelry-making businesses.
“It took a few years to find my style and
my pace,” she says, explaining that after years of working with
beads and other unusual materials “something magical happened when
I started working with gemstones.”
For years, earnings from Buckner’s business
supplemented household income derived largely from her husband’s
50-hour a week job as manager of a ranch. Now she says her earnings
contribute about half of the family’s income.
Having a husband with a full-time job has
allowed Buckner to grow her business slowly, she says, adding that
she’s never had to take a loan or borrow funds to sustain her work.
Plus, running the business from home made child care easier, and
for a time even allowed her to home-school her son.
 A
self-taught businesswoman, Buckner says she jumped into her first
jewelry business “feet first without knowing what I was doing.”
But she learned a lot, she says, both from experience and from area
artists, many of whom were quite willing to help a beginner.
More formal assistance came in 1999 when
she discovered West Company, a not-for-profit microenterprise development
organization with offices in Ft. Bragg and Ukiah, Calif. Over time
she’s taken advantage of numerous classes and workshops offered
by West Company that are designed to help entrepreneurs launch,
manage and grow their businesses.
That training, she says, “helped me get a
better handle on my business. I’m an up and running artist and I
have been for a long time. But I don’t have all the skills I need
and I have very little time to get those skills.”
Especially beneficial, she says, was an opportunity
to learn QuickBooks through West Company, which arranged for six
home visits by a computer specialist who taught Buckner the ins
and outs of the software program on her own computer.
“Being taught on my own computer, that was
tremendous,” says Buckner. “I’m a pencil and paper person. It took
a couple of months” to master the software. But she adds, “I feel
much more powerful now.”
Designing jewelry and finding markets for
her pieces have always been fairly easy for Buckner, who says she’s
never shied away from directly approaching shop owners about carrying
her work. Moreover, she’s maintained some of her accounts for a
decade or more.
“I’m really good at making jewelry and I’m
really good at selling it. …I believe in what I do and I put good
energy into my work,” she says.
 Her
jewelry is now sold by a wide range of retailers in small nearby
towns, as well as in Sacramento, San Francisco and Oakland. Among
those carrying her pieces are women’s clothing stores, winery and
museum gift shops, galleries and nature centers.
To service her accounts, Buckner takes to
the road two days a week with a couple of big, black jewelry cases
in the back of her car. “My dream,” she says, “is to be able to
stay home and market from here. I’d like to sell to galleries and
museums across the country. I have six museums right now and that,
I think, is a coup.” Selling to more national parks is also a goal,
she says.
Still, Buckner is pleased that her business
managed to grow, even during periods of national economic slowdown
and recession.
 These
days, making jewelry is both a labor of love and a family affair
for the Buckners, with both her husband and teenage son now creating
jewelry of their own design. Like her, her husband works with fine
gemstones, but his pieces have a distinctive style. “This has expanded
our (jewelry line) look,” she says. “We do really beautiful work
and really pay attention to quality.”
So enthused is her husband about his new
avocation, the couple can easily envision a future with jewelry
making contributing substantially to their household income.
“We look at it as our future,” she says.
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The Aspen Institute
