Never Too Old to Get Rich

CHAPTER 5Bejeweled

Laura Tanner Swinand, Laura Tanner Jewelry

When you love doing something, it’s hard to leave it behind for long. For Laura Tanner Swinand, that’s designing delicate drop earrings, beaded chains, and bangle bracelets of sparkling gemstones such as druzy, labradorite, and moonstone – wrapped in silver and gold. She’s the founder of the eponymous Laura Tanner Jewelry (lauratannerjewelry.com), which she launched in 2006, based in Evanston, Illinois.

“As far back as I can remember, I’ve loved creating tiny things by hand, whether little furniture for my dollhouse, intricate clothes for my paper dolls, or jewelry,” says Swinand, 50. “I started making jewelry as a teenager, at first because I needed to customize my own earrings with clip-on backs before my parents allowed me to get my ears pierced.”

In high school, her favorite classes were metalsmithing and enameling. And she brazenly peddled her designs to local stores in her hometown of Santa Barbara, California.

She comes by her love of art and design honestly. “I was always doing art projects and going to gallery openings and museum exhibitions with my mom, who’s an artist,” she says. After earning degrees in art history – a bachelor’s from the University of Pennsylvania and a master’s at the University of Southern California – Swinand held a variety of jobs at museums writing educational materials and creating ...