Check Out Wimalin Pantawangoon’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Wimalin Pantawangoon. 

Wimalin, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My name is Wimalin Pantawangoon. I am a jewelry designer/ small online jewelry business owner. I am Thai, was born and raised in Thailand. 

As I recall, during my childhood, I always spent my time strolling in the garden, observing animals, plants, and clouds around my house and neighborhood. I enjoyed playing with my dogs, looking at my colored illustrated books, and doodling something with my colored pencils; on the contrary, my siblings enjoyed playing video games and action animations. 

Whenever I had to choose where to go, I would go to the zoo, aquarium, or museum. 

Animals, Art, Crafts, and Colors have always been my pleasures. The animals have always been my biggest muses; I find their forms, colors, and movements fascinating. 

Anyway, I got my first degree in political science; with financial support from my aunt and family, I pursued my second degree in the States; I got my second degree in Fine Art – Sculpture/Small Metal Jewelry. 

I chose small metal jewelry as my major because it matches my meticulous nature. I tend to work better with small-scale sculptures, and I love incorporating intricate details into all of my works. 

When I took a small metal jewelry class, I was assigned to go to Rene Lalique/ Faberge/ Tiffany Exhibition. I got inspired by Rene Lalique’s colorful Art Nouveau hot enameling jewelry and Peter Carl Faberge Eggs. Their styles and the amount of intricate detail the artists put on their works amazed me. 

When I got back to Thailand, I got a full-time job as a jewelry designer for around two years. I learned basic jewelry design and technical jewelry sketching by using Illustrator from my co-workers at my workplace. And after I quit my 2nd job for a while, a friend of mine told me he wanted to start an online jewelry business, and he asked me to work with him as a jewelry designer. 

We had decided to go with something not commercial. I was in charge of all the jewelry designs, from hand sketching to technical sketching in Illustrator, and he was in charge of all the manufacturing parts. 

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Around one year after that, we had decided to stop working together. Since then, I’ve been working on all the jewelry designs and all manufacturing parts by myself. 

With only two years of experience in an actual jewelry design field, zero experience in a jewelry manufacturing field, and being an introvert, I had not many connections. 

I was so confused running an online jewelry business all by myself. 

It takes years to find good cad modelers, good casting places, good jewel smiths, good gemstone merchants with reasonable prices. It takes years to do jewelry photography and photoshop properly. It takes year to learn about an online customer behavior. 

Jewelry design is challenging because the school I went to didn’t have any jewelry design classes. They were all conceptualized and handmade jewelry classes. To design something niche and can get a good sell is tough. Finding the balance between what I want and what the market wants is challenging. It’s hard not to lose myself to the market. 

Online marketing is the hardest thing for me, for I’ve never had taken any business class before, and the old me, I didn’t have an interest in learning about it. Although I was fully aware that it takes more than good designs/ good photos/ good promotion to sell something, I just kept denying learning about marketing. 

What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
As a jewelry designer/ creative, online marketing is not so enjoyable. However, online marketing is undeniably necessary because we’re now living in a fast-spinning, digital world, under Covid – 19 pandemic circumstances. I should have invested my time learning about online marketing before starting an online business. 

Contact Info:

• Email: wimalinjewelry@gmail.com
• Website: www.wimalinjewelry.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wimalinjewelry/