Dawn Grady
The jewelry maker behind Junebug Designs on trading a 15-year career for a brick-and-mortar shop and learning to move forward on faith.
Dawn Grady does everything with intention. The jewelry maker and business owner sat down with us to discuss her journey as a creative in Cincinnati. She shared her transition from Marketing Director to Entrepreneur/Jewelry Designer, as well as her future goals to upscale her business.
The Junebug Designs business owner opened up her shop in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood of Cincinnati in October of 2020—not a particularly easy time to be starting a new brick-and-mortar endeavor.
She had been working for Cincinnati Public Schools for fifteen years, and was 48 years old when she said she first started thinking seriously about such a serious career pivot.
“During the Covid crisis I thought, ‘you know, maybe now’s the time,’” Grady says.
So she went on LinkedIn, did an easy apply for another similar Communications position with another school district, and explains that—despite being 45 minutes late to the meeting—she nevertheless interviewed for the position for an hour and a half. The next day, Grady says, “they called and offered me the job.”
So she turned it down, quit her job with CPS, opened the shop a few days later, and is still open for business some four years later.
“It’s tough to do that at my age,” Grady explains. “The older you get, the more risk averse you are.”
DAWN GRADY · JUNEBUG JEWELRY DESIGNS
But she has also been learning to trust her instinct and, “listening, when God is talking to me.” So she is getting better at moving forward on faith—even when things can seem unclear.
Dawn explains that she’s a words person, not a numbers person, and that kind of self-awareness is often lost on creative makers.
“You know you can’t really be numbers averse in business though,” the designer shares. That’s probably one of the biggest hurdles that I’m learning.”
“I can’t say I’ve learned it yet because I haven’t passed over that hurdle, but it’s definitely a piece of advice that I would say to anybody coming behind me.”
So, to be in a business that takes her out of her comfort zone, Ms. Grady certainly must love what she’s doing. And it certainly isn’t a new area of interest for this long time fan of statement jewelry.
Ms. Grady explains that she has always associated the fashion with powerful women like her mother, aunt, and grandmother.
“They were all boss women in their own rights, and they wore their statement pieces,” Grady explains.
“As a child, I always wanted to grow up into the woman who could own that kind of unique sense of style.”
Fast forward to a professional dinner Ms. Grady attended during her twenties. She describes how she wanted to dress up and, “act like I belong there, because this [was] all new to me.”
So she spent “more money than necessary” on a gown and selected something from the jewelry department that, “looked as Dynasty as I can afford.”
But once home and dressed, the necklace began to fall apart.
“I went to the dinner,” she tells. “But I didn’t quite feel like I was owning it.”
And that, for the emerging young professional, was one of the early proof points she needed regarding the power of statement jewelry.
In 2012 Grady returned to her hometown of Cincinnati and took a class on bead stringing at the University of Cincinnati’s Communiversity. For a class assignment, she created a necklace and earring set that her fellow classmates raved over, and the impression was not lost on the future designer. She ran to the nearest bead shops in town and got really lost in the making.
At the time, the business owner was—like so many others—binging on Game of Thrones. Being inspired by their various characters, Ms. Grady began channeling the concept of a “Warrior Queen” who can marry together the idea of being both regal and a brave fighter.
Motivated and lead by her vision, Dawn started investing in learning new skills and how to work with high quality materials. Seeing the execution of her design from start to finish confirmed that she was on the right track.
Ms. Grady took a metal smithing class in Philadelphia that same year. “I just literally fell in love with the act of being able to take a raw material and a stone and to put those together as a piece of art that I just conceived,” the artist explains.
In 2015 Dawn started an online store, and began hosting home trunk shows with friends. But one of the most critical factors of her success is that she found out about Mortar.
Not only did the aforementioned Cincinnati-based entrepreneurial hub have resources for aspiring business persons like Ms. Grady, but they also had a pop-up space that they offered at a discounted rate for those enrolled in their programs. Dawn graduated from Mortar’s Entrepreneurship Academy, and was also their Pitch Night winner of 2017.
“What I really didn’t anticipate was just how tapped in they are within the city in terms of resources coming to the African American entrepreneurs. Like, it’s a no brainer to be married to Mortar,” she says with enthusiasm. Not only did Mortar provide Grady with access to her first storefront space, they also passed along grant opportunities that made sense for both her and the needs of her business.
This is something that the CMC ultimately would like to help make more accessible for makers and artists of all kinds throughout Cincinnati.
“I think Cincinnati is a good place, particularly if you are a maker who wants to build it into a business,” Grady says.
“Cincinnati has a lot of resources and other small business owners, networks, grant programs and opportunities,”
“I think it’s a really good place to get a start,” Dawn says.
We wholeheartedly agree!
To find out more about Dawn’s statement-making jewelry, visit her website at https://junebugjewelrydesigns.com/ or follow Junebug Jewelry on social media @junebugjewelrydesigns or https://www.facebook.com/JunebugJewelryDesigns/
