Spotlight: blue hour designs

Whenever I have a husband and wife team in the Spotlight, I am both envious and curious. What do you think? Could you work side by side with your spouse all day, every day, or are you laughing right now as you quietly mutter the words, not a chance in hell?

Norbert and Alysia Melnikov of blue hour designs have not only figured out how to make it work (along with raising two young boys), but they have perfected it to the point of making it their full time job. When you see their work, I think you'll agree – they've got this down.

Read on to learn more about how this duo got started, who does what when it comes to shop keeping and who gets to do the cooking and cleaning. You can also enter to win a gift certificate to their shop!

Tell us a bit about yourselves and what you create
We are Norbert and Alysia Melnikov, a husband and wife team that created blue hour designs. We specialize in making modern handcrafted jewelry made of precious and semi-precious natural stones and metal. We design and fabricate all our jewelry from beginning to end in our studio outside of Boulder, Colorado. It is really important to us to use responsible and mindful fabrication practices such as replacing commonly used chemicals with natural products and using recycled/reclaimed precious metals in all of our designs.

Where are you from originally and where do you currently call home?
Alysia is from Albuquerque, NM and Norbert is from Tallinn, Estonia (a tiny country in Northeastern Europe). We make our home just outside of Boulder, CO.

How long have you been selling your work?
About 1.5 years.

Do you sell full time or do you have a day job?
Both of us work on this full time, but we are also full time parents. Prior to starting blue hour designs, Norbert worked as a computer engineer and Alysia stayed home with our two rambunctious little boys. Before that, she was a teacher. We were both unhappy with our professions and often talked about starting a business of our own, but never quite knew exactly what it would be…

What, if any, formal training have you had in your craft?
Alysia is primarily self taught in silversmithing save for a few classes and workshops.

What made you decide to begin selling?
Making jewelry was not even necessarily what we had always planned on doing. Alysia has always been an artist in some form or another. Originally she just signed up for a weekend silversmithing course to pursue an artistic outlet with the intent of this becoming a side business for her that she could do while raising our boys. The early acceptance of her work and positive feedback from customers encouraged us to take the leap of faith and make this the business we had always dreamed of owning that would combine our passions for art and entrepreneurship.

Do you find you have better traffic to your Etsy shop or your independent site?
It’s currently about equal. As far as sales are concerned, Etsy sells more unique and one-of-a-kind items while our made-to-order and in-stock designs do slightly better on our own website. We also have a lot of traffic to our website from store owners, curators and gallery owners for wholesale purposes.

Being a husband and wife team, who does what for the business?
Alysia is the designer in every regard. She designs everything from our jewelry to the look of our brand, from packaging to website appearance. She is also the primary metalsmith and photographer. Norbert handles most of the business, marketing, technical website design, but also spends a lot of time in the workshop.
We both work on our business 3 full days a week for a combined 6 day work week. While one of us is working, the other person is looking after our boys, shuttling them from preschool to soccer, etc and keeping the household running.

Alternatively, who does what around the house?
The household chores, everything from cooking to cleaning, are also split evenly. Thankfully both of us enjoy cooking :)

Are there times when it is difficult working together?
The most challenging times were definitely in the beginning, so, yes, it has been difficult at times. Now after defining each other’s roles more clearly (and honestly, getting used to be together all the time), we work together incredibly well. We put in a concerted effort into drawing a line between our business and home life.

Do you have any advice for other sellers or those thinking about pursuing their craft?
As we grow, we are continuously learning about this business, but here are a few key lessons we have learned thus far:
• There is a distinct difference between selling your work as a hobby and creating a business. When doing it for a living, it is important to have a business plan when starting out so you have a good idea about what goals you are trying to accomplish with your business.
• Stay true to your own style. This is what is going to set you (and keep you) apart from others.
• When selling online, hone in on your photography skills. This is a widely repeated piece of advice….for good reason. If you are selling online, your pictures ARE your product.
• Use your time wisely and focus on your strengths. Time is by far the most important asset most of us have, so focus on items that give you the most bank for your buck.
• Read up on your craft and learn the methods that make it easier, buy the necessary tools, and keep notes when working on something new and innovative.
• And most importantly, make sure you love what you do!

Five Etsy Shops you love
Lottahelleberg – textile art and design
Lmoss – hand bound books
Vintageaimee – stained glass work
Ovejanegra – hand knitted design
Moonovermaize – handmade jewelry

Five things you love
Norbert: I love my family, traveling, competition, good food in good company, and accomplishing the goals I’ve set for myself.

Alysia: My little familia, yoga, reading, traveling, food!

Five things you don't

Norbert: I do NOT love narrow-mindedness, complaining, waiting, making mistakes, when things don’t go my way.

Alysia: Cruelty, ignorance, immaturity, whining, and bad food ;)

Where is the coolest place you have ever been?
Norbert: Probably the jungle near the Amazon in South America, although there are many very cool places in the world I’ve had the opportunity to visit.
Alysia: This is a toss-up between Machu Piccu in Peru and the old town of Tallinn, Estonia in Europe. But, I have to agree with Norbert….I’ve visited so many great places!

What is your favorite leisure time activity?
Norbert: Anything competitive, really… playing pool, cards, golf, racquet ball, mountain biking are all pretty high up there.
Alysia: Hmmm, well anything outdoors really: biking, hiking, gardening. I also love to read and look at magazines. Oh! And sitting on the front porch with a cup of coffee or tea is another biggie.

Favorite junk food
Norbert: Probably wings and beer.
Alysia: I don’t really like junk food, but I definitely do enjoy some pizza and beer…..just what we had for dinner tonight ;)

What is the strangest thing that has ever happened to you?
Norbert: I would say marrying a Latina is pretty high up there :)
Alysia: Very funny!!

What is the stupidest thing you have ever done?
Norbert: I once locked my keys in my car… while the car was still running!
Alysia: I kind of do stupid things every day, like stubbing my toe on anything that sticks out an inch from the ground L Norbert has always said that I am clumsy….

Share some of your favorite music
Norbert: I’m not a big music person, but I do like most music with a good beat to get me going and energized.
Alysia: This is a hard one…..I love music so much and I have a wide taste so I’ll try to condense:
Depeche mode
Morrissey
Imogen heap
The Cure
The Shins
Bjork
Loreena Mckennitt
Feist
Beethoven
DJ tiesto
Cocteau Twins…….okay, I’ll stop now J

What would you like to learn?
Norbert: I’d like to learn more about various cultures in the world.
Alysia: More languages! Estonian is at the top of the list right now, though, because it is spoken everyday in our house.

What does the future hold for you and your shop?
We see us pushing forward hard with growing our business. We will continue our branding efforts and hope to make blue hour designs well known for its uniqueness, quality, charitable work and eco-consciousness.
From a personal perspective, we’d like our business to provide for us so our family can travel the world, learn about various cultures and meet a ton of interesting people.

You can keep up with Norbert and Alysia and their work by visiting their blog and following them on Facebook.

You can also sign up for their newsletter by clicking the link in the bottom left corner of their website and receive news about new designs, upcoming events, sales, promotions and more.

GIVEAWAY TIME!

One lucky winner will receive a $50 Gift Certificate to blue hour designs!

HERE'S HOW TO ENTER:
Please leave a comment on this post with your favorite item from blue hour designs along with which designs, if any, you would like to also see created in gold.

You may enter once per day with another item you love and YOU MUST INCLUDE your first name -AND- etsy username or email address with every entry. (If you are worried about email spam, you can spell out the 'at' and 'dot' rather than using the standard email format.)

Receive additional entries (one each) if you:

Follow or subscribe to this blog, my Twitter, or my Facebook

Sign up for the blue hour designs newsletter (just leave a note in your comment saying you would like to sign up, along with your email address)

You DO NOT need to leave separate comments for each additional entry, just mention which apply!

You have until Sunday, September 19 at 10 pm (est) to enter and I will announce the winner Monday morning. Good luck!