Now there's a website for the girl who has everything.
Founded by sisters Susan Hurley of North Andover, Massachusetts and Lisa First of League City,
Texas, www.forthegirlwhohaseverything.com
(also www.lisafirst.com) is in its second year as an online
shop for handmade jewelry, including bracelets that consumers can personalize by clicking and
dragging charms onto online prototypes in six colors. "There is nothing else like this on
the Web as far as I have researched and seen," said 40-year-old Hurley, who is
responsible for the company's sales and marketing, while 42-year-old First
assembles the bracelets, necklaces, and earrings from her home in Texas.
The sisters share design and shipping duties.
"Lisa and I were typical sisters growing up" in North Reading, Massachusetts
always borrowing each other's clothes, Hurley said. "We never thought we'd
be in business together someday, but we're having a lot of fun doing it."
After First moved to Texas 18 years ago, Hurley said, they remained
close through frequent phone calls despite having lives "on
different ends of the spectrum." While First became a nurse,
Hurley worked in an office, taught aerobics, and was a
cheerleader for the New England Patriots in the 1980s.
According to Hurley, the seeds of the business were
planted at Christmas 1999, when First presented her mother
and three sisters with bracelets ornamented with pearls from
a necklace owned by the sisters' late grandmother.
"It was so beautiful, so special, and whenever I wore it,
the response was incredible, with people asking me where I got it,"
Hurley said. ''I encouraged Lisa to make more, and I wore everything
she sent. It got to the point where I was taking orders from other moms
in the parking lot of St. Augustine School [in Andover, Massachusetts] when I'd go to
pick up my sons" -- 13-year-old Ryan McGillivray and 10-year-old Max McGillivray.
"Actually," she added, "that continues to happen."
Once the sisters decided to turn First's hobby into a business,
Hurley said, they searched for a website designer to build the function
allowing consumers to create their own designs. A business colleague presented
their request in an online chat room for computer professionals and ultimately
put them in touch with Martin Latter of England.
"He's like our Charlie in 'Charlie's Angels.' We've never met him,
but we rely on him every day," Hurley said of Latter, who communicates
online with Hurley and First from his home in West Sussex. "He was able to capture
my vision of an interactive experience perfectly."
Although the website has been up and running for about 15 months,
Hurley said, business boomed when the company's collection of "wraps" --
Swarovski crystal necklaces that can
be overlapped up to three times so they descend to different lengths --
was mentioned in the December 2003 issue of InStyle magazine.
Hurley declined to elaborate on company sales except to say business has grown
"almost 100 percent" in the last year, with the bulk of orders coming from
New York and California. Although product lines change seasonally, she noted,
popular items include theme bracelets, rosary beads, and limited-edition
couture pieces (one of which will be unveiled after Valentine's Day).
Prices range from $40 to $600, with shipping in seven to 10 days for in-stock
items and up to four weeks for special orders. Products are also available
locally at Debora Lunt hair studio in Beverly Farms, Massachusetts and Baubles Fine Jewelry
in Lynnfield, Massachusetts.
With orders coming in every day, and a nursing job to maintain at
Cornerstone Hospital of Houston, First said, she exchanges jewelry for
stringing work with three or four women near her Texas home. Her husband,
Jesse Cadena, has been known to string necklaces in return for her blessing
to go on fishing trips.
However, First said, she assembles the couture pieces herself, as well as
memory bracelets she has helped grieving family members design. One piece,
commissioned by a young man for his mother, integrated charms evoking his
sister's love of teaching, music, and sports.
"I've loved creating jewelry ever since I was a little girl, but now it's become an obsession,"
said First, who said she has put her plan of making her own beads on hold "because it takes a
lot of practice, and I'm not very good at it yet."
"Ultimately, I'd like our designs to become a household name," she added.
"Hopefully, that would allow us to broaden our scope into more nonprofit work."
First said she has already sold a half-dozen 9/11
commemorative bracelets made of crystals, Venetian glass beads, and
patriotic and symbolic charms. They are priced at $225, she said, and all
proceeds benefit the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation,
based in Ojai, Calif. A caretaker of seven foster golden retrievers, First is also
designing a bracelet to benefit the Golden Beginnings Golden Retriever Rescue in Houston.
"I'd like this to be my forever job, working on things that are different and meaningful," First said. "I don't want to just be
here, stringing beads."
Source: © 2004, Boston.com
© Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.
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