Hi, this is Julia's your side hustle with Sugar Gay is for and I have a special guest
today I'm so excited I met her three years ago right outside this door and she's at the ranch
today where her mother helped us purchase this ranch she was a real estate agent and she had come
on the day that we were seeing it and so I got to meet her then and she was very interested in
jewelry way back then so this is like now springing forward three years and we want to talk to
Kate, her name Kate she'll introduce herself here in a minute and we're going to talk about her
jewelry and I just think it's wonderful that we have a young person here that is really serious
about her craft and about being an entrepreneur so we're going to learn a lot today from Kate which
I can't wait I'm so excited okay so Kate take it all on this your turn introduce yourself.
Hi my name is Kate Sigmund and I am the owner of Kate's creations I make earrings on Facebook and
I have a little business I started I think it was last spring and I have had very much fun doing it
I like it because well it gives me something to do and whenever you're little it's hard to make money
so it's something that you can do to make money then tell me so tell me okay so I'm so proud of
you you know I'm very proud of you you're adorable and you're going to go very far in life tell us
about some of the methods that you use so are you using I know I know the earrings that you're
wearing right now for example they are what are they made out of is that resin yes you're pouring
resin and coloring it with alcohol dyes yes I sometimes I use glitter sometimes I use other
things like kind of little fake sprinkles in them to make them look cool and I also use like the
alcohol dye too because it's translucent and it's like glass right is that one of the reasons why
you like resin it's so much fun to use resin isn't it yeah like it is now and I would remind you and
your mother since she's sitting right behind the camera is that be very careful using chemicals
you know that right you're using all your protection some gloves and you've got some alcohol wipes to
clean up afterwards and then wash your hands really good after you've been using them okay good just
just to put that out there because we do want to know that you know she's a young girl and I really
think that the accumulation of chemicals is you know something that we should always be careful of
and I have for a young person I would really make sure they know safety is the most important
so tell us when the first time you made a piece of jewelry what was it do you remember
I think a teardrop earring with lavender gold and silver of glitter in it and the first time I made
it it was last spring break whenever I didn't really have anything to do so I decided mom got this
little kit and we started making earrings and at first we didn't really know how to do it so we
made the first pair but then it um it was still sticky and squishy whenever it finished so we had
to research it a lot so we could finally make it right and what do you think the key was with that
was it temperature or was it the mixture wasn't right or what did you kind of like decide was that
because I've had that happen to me like for sure I've had it like why didn't that work you know I
I'm very careful but sometimes it happens yeah so we always do we try to do the same amount of resin
right part a and part b in the same amount and but sometimes it doesn't work because we don't mix it
longer right because a and b don't mix very well so you have to make something like five minutes
until it's finally ready to pour yeah and then do you have problems with bubbles how do you get rid
of your bubbles well it's one of the worst problems that we have because they're always there and then
we can't really sell them a lot because like there's bubbles and people don't want like holes in them
right because so we use like a little needle to pop them right and then like if there's bubbles we
sometimes put so there's like where you put this part in like the little loop yeah you have to make
sure that it's secure and like it's connected right so sometimes there's a bubble there and a little
pop so then it gets there and there's a hole so we have to like put more in there right right fill
in that hole so that's yeah redo it we're just now have you ever tried the uv resin that you use in
the sun no i don't know okay well there's a couple little tricks about that it's number one it's a
little bit more expensive but it it's like instantly cured so i'll have to get you some of that but
you just have a bottle and the bottle is dark like there's no light coming in and i'm telling you that
because one time i bought some and it was like a brown bottle that you can kind of see through and
i had it by a window and it got totally solid so it cures by the uv so either i take it outside on a
sunny day but they also have this little these little boxes that you put your manicure you put
your fingers into cure the manicure when it's gel uh it's like a gel resin and that cures it but it
cures really fast but the trick is you can't have anything you can't have like where you pour the
resin and then you put something on top because the sunlight wouldn't get into that area where it's
on top so you kind of have to think it through like okay if there's not going to be any light
that's going to go through this thing i'll cure it first and then maybe i just glue that thing on
it's a little bit of tricks like that but um the uv resin is really fun to use because it's especially
for like like i like a got a little like a little bubble or something like that you just need like a
little tiny bit to fill in you can just put that little tiny bot in there take it outside done and
it's like done it literally will be cured in like five minutes and then it's like your bubble problem
is fixed so see i can i'm so happy i can teach you something because i know that you're learning
a lot i want to see some of the pieces that you brought to show me because you know i also haven't
since you're doing resin you can go ahead and i'm gonna start so i'm looking so you're doing resin
i have another friend of mine she takes flowers and dips them into resin have you seen that before
and then turns them into flower earrings yeah so my grandma i think she had been telling me
whenever like the bluebonnets came out on our property we could pick them on our property
and then like put them in the earrings right but then i thought that's because i don't make like
the big earrings i make like the skinny earrings i'd be hard to put it hard to put it in right or
else it'd be like really big earrings and that wouldn't look good right and your earrings are
really colorful and pretty so show me about so show me okay so this is your packaging oh look at these
but this is my new one i started with okay so i just have to show everybody so they're adorable
so she has her branding it might be backwards on there but it says case creations oh my god i love
her look we've got a QR code people scan that QR code i'm gonna hold it right there get your phones
out and tell me about your QR code it says follow me on facebook to see my creations
oh my god this is like we are this is what this is what eight years old now this we nine
we are so proud of her okay like an adorable like i'm so proud of you oh and i'm making i can i can
teach you i'm making QR code rings so you hold your ring out it has your QR code and then people
can scan it right up their phone i just made it for a friend that you just got them um i think
she's in new jersey but i could show you how to do that because it's just nothing it's like nothing
okay so these are really adorable oh i'm so proud and these are christmas light bulbs like lightbulb
right light bulb kind of earrings and those are really cute what do you think has been the hardest
part about learning and to make jewelry like what is number one your packaging is adorable did you
make these yourselves uh well something you know then the the packaging like you came up with them
in yourself so mama she helped me with a lot of that stuff because i i'm not totally into that
and like i can't even help myself yes you're learning that's all so it's hard but i like i try to
tell her like the design i like on there and oh that's so cute like seriously y'all when mom bought
like these little boxes like the for like um your for school uh where you put your pencils in but
instead it's like they don't sell like the valentine's ones don't sell or the christmas ones don't
sell we'll separate them and put them in different boxes so when it comes back to time oh you have
it all organized that's right yeah so it's not as much work okay so this is our cute little
jocke lanterns and i love it that you've used some um actually you put a little bit of green it looks
like a little bit on the top thing there that's even really cute these are adorable so tell me
about your pricing and who are you who was your customer uh well i don't remember who my first
customer was because that was like a long time ago but i think i started giving them to like my
friend so they could like show people this and stuff and then they could wear them like isn't
that smart so you automatically knew create a demand because the people are wearing them other
people will see them and then they'll want more and then you can sell more so you're are you selling
these mostly to your teachers and to your other your fellow students no not just those people
i do it to like a lot of people like mom's friends and stuff like that and what and tell me about
your pricing so are they all one price or do you have different pricings for all different prices
because like there's small ones like these little bunnies and then there's these big light bulbs that
i'll have yeah so these are the little the little bunnies are 11 they're really so i very cute and
then the bigger bunnies are 14 so you're doing it mostly you're pricing it kind of by size the size
is depending on on your thing but your little your your work is really beautiful you've done a really
good job and now are you having if you have any other problems that are like kind of like the
tricky parts that you find about making jewelry because it's easy to make jewelry the harder part
is selling it do you find that to be kind of true not really hard but like you can make more you
could just keep making and making and making but you gotta sell them right yeah because it's a tricky
part so now that baseball and softball are coming up i had a bunch of people last year and this year
told me that i should do like a bunch of used in asterisks or other sides but uh so i think
we're gonna get more loads because we don't have that many um loads that are like baseball
they're softballs but we had to get the perfect color and it took a long time to get the perfect
color for the softball now another thing that you could even expand on this because you can put
paper so you could print out paper or cut paper or i actually print out on clear transparency paper
you know clear it's like clear film and you can run it through the printer and then you can put any
kind of an image that you want on that and then cut it out and put it into your sea or head just
exploded didn't it because you could like take a picture of that blue bonnet and now you print it out
on that paper either regular paper works or clear paper and then it looks like there's actually a
blue bonnet in there without there actually and then you could keep doing it over and over and over
and over and over again again and then you can see the other and then you can see the other
and then you can see the other without um i don't know if i have any is in there but here here's
another thing so these are this is clear resin and i just any kind of a any kind of a circle or
anything like that doesn't have a hole in it so these aren't jump rings right so they're complete
the circle down. You then you can fill it in with resin and then you just put in these are like
stones but you could put anything in the resin that way. I could blow your mind. Come spend 30
minutes with me at my studio and I'll really teach you some tricks but I think that your selection
of glitters are perfect. So do you have a lot of glitter now? Yeah I have a lot. I started with
little like little things kind of like boxes but they're really small right to us and they only had
a little bit of glitter in them so we started to get different types of glitter. We got bigger
glitter that we mixed in with the resin and then we got like the sprinkles and like. Oh those are
so cute. Are these candy ones? No they're not. Oh okay but sprinkles work too like candy sprinkles.
Those are so cute but you know I love hearts. We do sprinkles. We do things that look like sprinkles.
I think that looks so cute. Yeah see like some sprinkles. Yeah so they're not really sprinkles.
Those are actually like so where are you where do you buy your your sprinkles and things?
Mom buys them online. She doesn't want money though because sometimes we um so Easter it was we had to
buy new earring modes but then when it you couldn't find the regular earring mode so we had to use
like my money because she usually buys them because I let her work for free.
And maybe she gets to wear jewelry for free. Yeah polymer clay. Oh little sprinkles yeah
yeah that's they're not real but you can use real ones and then they're fun to eat too.
You can even use like I made a jewelry I made jewelry one time using the Lucky Charms but it
was all they had like little the green marshmallows it was all green marshmallows but I went for
St. Patrick's Day and then I got to eat the rest of them but I didn't have it. It's white
out right. Don't tell your mother that but you're not going to eat polymer clay ones.
Okay so and how what is oh I love these Fourth of July kites those are really good the blue and the
do you do a really good job and all of your findings look really nice and your packaging is
beautiful and your prices are really good. Do you have a hard time deciding if it's going to be gold
or silver? Well we have to just buy like new rosemary gold because it matched together because
we have like a rosemary gold color and so it wouldn't look good if you like put silver or gold with
it so we have to get rosemary gold jumps and hoops and things so we can put them together.
So now you have the three colors you have the rose gold silver or red or gold so people can
order them from you in the in different color creations that they want maybe to match an
outfit. Yeah but like on Facebook I have a little page and it's I have earrings but since they're
like earrings and they're kind of just put glitter in it you know you can I can have more than one
person want them so I would make new ones but then whenever it came to Halloween I had those pumpkins
and I had a bunch of different kinds of pumpkins like the ones with the alcohol and glitter and
different types of glitter and so I had to put numbers on them and it went up to like 15 or 20
and people started asking me is this how much they are and I was like no because I have a bunch of
these pumpkins and if you want a certain pumpkin you can say you want that one so I don't get it
mixed up with the other pumpkins. Right right now how do you how do you get inspired isn't she adorable?
100% adorable 100% 110% adorable yeah so how do you find molds that you like that you go oh yeah
that's perfect for like that's perfect for 4th of July and these hoops are really great too
and the trick is not over filling right they're the molds what else have you learned that's
a good trick to teach people? Yeah if I do like a lot of mold I do a lot of resin in the mold
then they start to like stick together and so we have to like cut them with scissors so they
aren't like together right because they always have like extra parts on them right yeah now do
you buy two molds so that you make two earrings at the same time? No there's actually molds that
have like double yeah I already they're ready for you and then in these here that have like the hoops
with the middle these ones came in like a bigger one so there was like two or three pairs on them
but these there were also like different shapes on there like small ones. Aw you are so good I'm
so proud and and your paper is actually kind of got a rainbow paper on your Kate's creations is that
your idea too because it looks really nice? The rainbow so it just makes it stand out it makes
it pop more than just white right and brown and it also yeah and it also just kind of it gives a
little bit of like the whole thing looks better because of that rainbow on there don't you think?
Yeah because it kind of was it's not too bright of a color. Yeah so I have all of your friends
bought earrings from you now pretty much? Well they don't I started giving them for like three
because they're friends right and then they started mistreating them not probably so they were
like they were losing them and throwing them in the trash because I can't find them so I decided
that I'm not going to give them anymore for free they're gonna have to start paying them because
so you that's a really big thing to learn that realize if people don't pay for them then they
don't appreciate them as much but if they pay something for them then they appreciate them
and then they but accidents do happen but they should have said hey I lost an earring can you
make another one and then that would have been the right thing to do instead of just throwing them away
like it's not a big deal. Oh I'm so sorry that happened to you that is people just don't understand
do they like all that all the effort and you're very talented obviously in all of this what's the
next thing you want to learn how to make so you're good at earrings. So I want to make like necklaces
with the resin and like coasters because I haven't like started doing that yet.
So yeah because I saw some coasters recently I was in a store and I'm like look how cute those
are like they're really cute like. I see like wherever the hair stuff is and the body carries
I see like little boxes that are made from resin and glitter. Right now you're seeing it everywhere
when you realize how much resin there is in the world. It is an amazing little product that we can
like use. See right behind us see these big things right here that's just resin and it's in cake mold
silicone cake molds. Cake molds? Yeah sure anything that could be a mold right uh yeah so I I do
I do use a lot of resin in a lot of things because I I love using resin I used it probably yesterday
and it's a quick thing so I definitely want to I want to circle back and I want to show you some
about the UV resin. Is there anything else you want to tell us about your business number one
I'm really impressed by you you're you're a beautiful young woman and your your work is impeccable
and you've done a really great job and I'm just so proud of you and so what's next on the horizon
we're gonna do some necklaces necklaces are next okay but like for the price I I don't just take
cast I also take vinyl on it okay oh you're selling them in a store now well not a store but I started
selling them at Busted Oaks and there was this little girl there and she was looking at her mom
was going to buy her some but she won it because they weren't clip-ons but I want people to know
that they're clip-ons I just don't know what to do because some people want clip-ons and some people
don't so it's hard so I started I started we did earring without the um loops in them yet
because we were showing them because if they want it so we just leave them for later and if they
want to clip-ons we could put them up but then they were wondering about that because they like you
don't just do earrings without the poops right right right the hooks or the jump rings the hooks
the jump rings right oh my gosh you do that clip-ons when she's gone to like Busted Oaks they had a
crash though so she had a booth at a crash show and then now she has her collection at a hair salon
in Cali I'm so proud of you you're my competition I have to kill you
so I also own the hair place Aston's hair place and Aston's in Lawn Sapphire and
I sold them for like one dollar more there because she's letting me do it there so I can't
like not give her anything right whenever they sell right so every pair that sells she'll get
like a dollar too okay and then maybe she'd get a free pair earrings too yeah especially donated
some to Busted Oaks oh that's great they have a good for out there yeah and donations are good
too to give right because then people see your jewelry that might not have either seen it somewhere
else and I do a lot of donations too well I would love to see your glitter collection because it
must be really big I have a big one too I can't help it I love glitter I mean even my paintings
all have glitter in them did you see all that I use lots of glitter it's it's the thing although
some countries are stopping are stopping to make glitter did you know that because it ends up in the
ocean so I'm really careful when I use glitter like outside when I'm painting to really make sure
it doesn't land on the ground or we like vacuum the ground up so that doesn't end up in the lake
so now glitters I I can tell you I once had a five pound bag of glitter and now I only have like
a teaspoon left I've been used it it was just like my favorite glitter can you imagine going
through a five pound bag of glitter now it's taken me years but what I do is I even if I'm not
putting glitter in something I'll put a tiny bit of glitter in there just so it breaks up all the
bubbles when you're stirring it I kind of think it breaks up the helps break up the bubbles just to
give it a little something but you know that's so do you put your glitter in before so I have
different types of glitter so it depends on what type I use right I stir in with the resin and then
for some of it I put in the most I started kind of weird because I started rubbing it against the
mold but then it started staying there instead of coming off so I haven't done that anymore because
then there'd be straight color in there that where it's supposed to be right yes for sure yeah and
then really wash those molds really well so you keep keep them in maintain around the heart yeah
now the next thing I gotta teach you another thing is how to make a mold
it's gonna blow your mind oh I did I show you how to make a mold with the silicone mold oh well
we're gonna learn something anyway I have think this has been like the most educational 30 minutes
that I've had with a beautiful young woman who is seriously gonna go far in this world and I'm
so happy can you have any last words to tell your customers that they can find you on Facebook which
is Kate's creations and that's Kate with a Kate Kate with a K and creations with a C right just
like the spelling is all this hold it up there it's backwards Kate's creations they can find you
on Facebook and they can see all of your and you're in right now your products are you live in
Lexington, Texas or lead better Texas so you're in central Texas and I'll help you get to her if
you want to find her and but she's on Facebook so Kate's creations on Facebook and it's been
adorable to have you today and I can't wait to see what we'll have to do this like every year
you'll have to come back and we'll have to have a like a little time and then we'll keep seeing how
you're coming because I think it's beautiful you've done a great job and you're very well spoken so
this is jewelry as your side hustle with sugar gay is for and this has been Kate talking about
Kate's creations thanks again and y'all have a great day look forward to hearing from you again