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Go Slow With Intentionality: Bella Grass on Becoming a Jeweler, Building Confidence, and Finding Your Niche

Host Courtney Gray shares a conversation with Transform student Bella Grass about her path into jewelry after college, starting with a Boulder Metalsmithing Studio class, learning through an entry-level casting job, attending New Approach’s three-month program, and working as a repair jeweler and setter. Bella discusses what surprised her most, how hard and gratifying the work is, along with the focus, problem-solving, physical demands, and confidence required when things go wrong.

She explains how Courtney’s podcast and the Transform program helped her learn business basics, set boundaries, and “go slow with intentionality,” including designing a life first and letting the business fit around it. Bella shares current goals like showing work at the Colorado Metalsmithing Association Conference and training at GRS, and encourages others to keep going, seek community, and find mentors.

We cover:
00:00 Podcast Welcome
00:35 Why This Interview
01:16 Bella Finds Metalsmithing
02:17 First Jobs And Training
04:17 Confidence And Reps
06:02 What Makes It Hard
07:29 Discovering Transform
08:42 Business Skills Goals
09:39 Go Slow Intentionally
11:50 New Priorities And Boundaries
13:21 Next Steps And Shows
14:36 Advice To Keep Going
16:46 Find Your Niche
17:37 Should You Join Transform
17:58 Host Wrap And Next Steps
19:03 Final Sign Off

Support the show

Visit www.CourtneyGrayArts.com to read more about what I offer. Be sure to follow The Jeweler’s View so you never miss an episode! Now you can watch on You Tube: @theJeweler'sView. I’d love it if you could subscribe, and leave a rating and review by scrolling down on the main show page, this helps the podcast reach more amazing listeners like you.

💎 Have thoughts to share or just want to say hi? Reach out anytime and be sure to get on my VIP newsletter list. Welcome to the tribe!

– Courtney
Helping Jewelry Creatives access the knowledge, resources, and mindset they

need to achieve goals they once thought impossible.

Connect with me or check out the Transform Your Jewelry Business course at

www.CourtneyGrayArts.com

🤗 Linktree: All the Things

🎁 Get your FREE guide: Courage, Clarity, and Customers and

...

Send us Fan Mail

Stop Adding More Tasks: Find Direction with Two Words

Courtney Gray welcomes listeners to The Jeweler’s View and explores what to do when you know you want something different but can’t define what it is yet. She describes how makers often react by piling on new classes, tools, techniques, and goals, mistaking activity for direction.

Drawing from a coaching call with an accomplished jeweler and her own experience selling Creative Side without a mapped-out next step, she emphasizes creating space to notice what’s pulling, draining, and worth letting go of. Courtney introduces her live business program, Transform, where week one focuses on defining vision before making changes. For the “bench note,” she invites listeners to choose two honest words, what they want more of and what they need less of, to clarify their next direction.

We Cover:
00:00 Welcome to the Podcast
00:35 When You Want Change
01:42 A Client in Overdrive
02:34 Activity vs Direction
04:09 Two Words Prompt
05:21 Letting Go Without a Plan
06:50 Transform Program Vision
08:31 Bench Note Exercise
09:55 Next Week and Wrap Up
10:45 Sponsor and Final Notes

Support the show

Visit www.CourtneyGrayArts.com to read more about what I offer. Be sure to follow The Jeweler’s View so you never miss an episode! Now you can watch on You Tube: @theJeweler'sView. I’d love it if you could subscribe, and leave a rating and review by scrolling down on the main show page, this helps the podcast reach more amazing listeners like you.

💎 Have thoughts to share or just want to say hi? Reach out anytime and be sure to get on my VIP newsletter list. Welcome to the tribe!

– Courtney
Helping Jewelry Creatives access the knowledge, resources, and mindset they

need to achieve goals they once thought impossible.

Connect with me or check out the Transform Your Jewelry Business course at

www.CourtneyGrayArts.com

🤗 Linktree: All the Things

🎁 Get your FREE guide: Courage, Clarity, and Customers and

...

Send us Fan Mail

When Your Jewelry Business Doesn’t Fit Anymore: Recognizing Evolution Without a Perfect Plan

Courtney Gray introduces The Jeweler’s View and reflects on the Evolving Creatively event with Holly Gage, Francesca Watson, and Teresa Kiplinger, highlighting how creative and business evolution often happens without a full map. She emphasizes that recognizing something “doesn’t fit anymore” is valuable information and doesn’t mean failure, and that makers can experiment in business the way they do at the bench without self-judgment.

Drawing on Teresa’s idea of developing a visual vocabulary, Courtney notes that refinement requires exploration and letting go. She urges listeners to design a business around the life they want, acknowledging changing seasons, bodies, and priorities, and shares her program Transform: From Vision to Success, which addresses connected business fundamentals starting with defining personal success. Her bench note question is: “What doesn’t fit anymore?”

We cover:
00:00 Welcome and Mission
00:35 When Change Hits
01:20 Evolving Creatively Recap
02:01 Youre Evolving Already
03:57 When It No Longer Fits
04:55 Business Like Making
06:10 Design Your Own Rules
07:30 Personal Evolution Story
08:26 Questions That Shift
09:36 Transform Program Overview
11:24 Big Takeaway and Bench Note
13:34 Closing and Next Steps

Support the show

Visit www.CourtneyGrayArts.com to read more about what I offer. Be sure to follow The Jeweler’s View so you never miss an episode! Now you can watch on You Tube: @theJeweler'sView. I’d love it if you could subscribe, and leave a rating and review by scrolling down on the main show page, this helps the podcast reach more amazing listeners like you.

💎 Have thoughts to share or just want to say hi? Reach out anytime and be sure to get on my VIP newsletter list. Welcome to the tribe!

– Courtney
Helping Jewelry Creatives access the knowledge, resources, and mindset they

need to achieve goals they once thought impossible.

Connect with me or check out the Transform Your Jewelry Business course at

www.CourtneyGrayArts.com

🤗 Linktree: All the Things

🎁 Get your FREE guide: Courage, Clarity, and Customers and

...