Pontotoc woman finds success making Sadie Jewelry in her home
Jul. 9—PONTOTOC — Seventeen years ago, when Krista Blanchard was taking three months of maternity leave with her first son, she wanted to find something that would bring in a little extra money.
So she started playing around with jewelry. She went to Hobby Lobby and bought beads and wires and began creating pieces. The first place she took her jewelry to was Reed's Department Store in Tupelo, where she worked in the women's department.
"All my co-workers were like, 'Oh my goodness. You need to make some for Reed's,'" Blanchard said. "I ended up selling my first order to Reed's and have sold to them ever since."
When she first began her business venture, Blanchard didn't have a name for the earrings, necklaces and bracelets she made. But her co-worker, Tommy Green, solved that problem.
"We were at the University Club in Oxford doing a fashion show for Reed's," Blanchard said. "As the models were walking around modeling our clothes, one of them had on my jewelry. And Tommy, who was the emcee, was introducing her, and he said, 'And this model is wearing ...' and he looked at me. He knew my mother's name was Sadie, so he said, 'The model is wearing Sadie Jewelry.' He came up with the name on the spur of the moment."
A couple of years later, in 2007, Blanchard found a sales representative to sell her line of jewelry. At one time, Sadie Jewelry was in 100 boutiques across the South. Blanchard was so busy she had six or seven people — mostly family members — helping her make the jewelry, including her mother Sadie Kenney, and her father, David Kenney, who died in 2018.
"Mama and Daddy would come to my house first thing in the morning and sit at the kitchen table and drink coffee and make jewelry," she said. "When I'd get home from work at Reed's in the evening, they'd still be sitting at the table, making jewelry."
Over the years, the quality of Blanchard's pieces has improved. She started out using gold-plated and silver-plated metals, but now she uses sterling silver and 14 karat gold-filled metals, and semi-precious stones.
"I really try to make sure my products are quality pieces," she said. "I don't want to have anything returned."
Blanchard uses a lot of nature-inspired themes in her jewelry, like butterflies, bees, dragonflies, gingko leaves and flowers.
"I also love to use vintage pieces," she said. "I'll find an antique watch or a piece of antique jewelry and take it apart and remake it into something. I love to work with two-tone metals, because you can wear that with more."
Blanchard said every line of jewelry has a best-seller, and for her it's a delicate chain with tiny crosses on it.
"Those have been my most popular item for at least 10 years now," she said. "I'm always surprised by what people like. Sometimes, my least favorite pieces sell well. One time, I ordered all these beautiful, colored wool felt balls — they were my favorite and my mother's favorite line I'd done — and it didn't sell."
After Blanchard's sales rep retired in 2016, Blanchard started representing her line herself. She takes it with her on vacations to the beach, and sells it to different boutiques. In Northeast Mississippi, Sadie Jewelry is available at Reed's in Tupelo and Starkville; City Mercantile in Pontotoc; Olive Juice Gifts in Oxford; The Blue Owl in Aberdeen; and Hey Nezzie Boutique in New Albany.
Blanchard and her husband, John Scott, have three sons, Chance, Luke and Sam, who all attend Pontotoc City Schools. Between homework and sports, it's sometimes hard for Blanchard to find time to devote to her craft.
"I've been on the way to the ball field making jewelry, and I've been on the ball field making jewelry," she said. "But mostly, I'm here on the weekends doing it at this kitchen table. It once was smooth and pretty, but now, it's worn out."
