Meet Joscelyn Bowley of Central Phoenix

Today we’d like to introduce you to Joscelyn Bowley.

Hi Joscelyn, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I call myself lucky because I’ve been surrounded by creative people my whole life. My parents encouraged my sisters and I to pursue the arts growing up, and my dad even had his own art studio where a collective of artists taught in different mediums to all ages. Part of me has always been drawn to creative things so it was easy to get started making my own jewelry. I pull a lot of inspiration from Betsey Johnson, she has always been my favorite designer. A lot of what I make is loud and colorful. It stands out, and I like it that way because I want my jewelry to be a statement piece. There’s a few ways I like to craft jewelry together. I take apart old pieces of jewelry or curate charms and beads to recreate something one of a kind. Custom orders are my specialty though. Recently I made jewelry merch for a local Phoenix band that people really loved, the jewelry pieces were themed after the band name. It sold out in one weekend at the live shows! It would be really cool to do more themed band merch because I don’t see enough jewelry options in band merch. Other than that I respond really well to direct messages. People tell me what they like and I create something unique just for them. Everyone I make jewelry for is one of a kind so I want the jewelry to be too.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It hasn’t been a smooth road and I’m only getting started. After losing my corporate job I was left to find additional sources of income and decided to take a chance at jewelry. Working in advertising and marketing for a decade you would think I’d have a knack for content creating but that’s a whole other obstacle. I give mad props to the dedicated content creators out there because it takes work and guts to put yourself out there. Something I am still learning how to do myself. This is only the very beginning for me so that’s exciting and terrifying at the same time.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m a seasoned marketing professional by day and a self taught jewelry creator the rest of the time. It first started with my love for thrifting and taking apart old necklaces to recreate them into earrings or bracelets or even just new necklaces with added or removed parts. It came quite intuitively to me as I started taking jewelry apart and putting it back together how jewelry was assembled. Making pieces from scratch was a natural next step and that’s when I started using more beading and charms. I was making something that I wanted to wear, something that couldn’t be bought, and people were starting to notice more. So much so that friends and family were donating their old jewelry and jewelry making materials. My kitchen table was overtaken by jewelry making supplies the more I got into it and I’m still working out of my kitchen for the time being. It’s truly been a DIY start up venture for me but I hope to make a work space if this becomes successful and turns a profit in the future.

We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
When drag queens are wearing and loving my earrings, that’s when I have reached success. Seriously I am obsessed with everything about drag and can only hope my earrings and jewelry pieces are loved by queens. True success to me is the feeling that you know you’ve accomplished something incredible and you feel good about it. I feel really good about my success in marketing but being a small independent creator is a totally different ball game than what I’m used to. The scale is significantly smaller than most projects I’ve worked on in a professional setting. This is going to be an interesting challenge for me to take on so I guess success would also be reaching micro influencer status with a few thousand followers. Like I said though, drag queens or any queens wearing my uniquely created pieces out in the wild would be extraordinary.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.tiktok.com/@rainbowrebeljewelry
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rainbowrebeljewelry/

Image Credits
Kiva of KJ Media Labs