Dreams By Design

May 11, 2004
Section: BAYLIFE
Page: 1

A former Lakeland woman sparkles as a jewelry designer in New York City. By CHERYL N. SCHMIDT

LAKELAND — It's an hour before the trunk sale, and Zubie jewelry artist Betsy Reeves has forgotten the wine. She's also in bare feet, has made little progress in setting up displays and is operating on three hours of sleep. "Do you think we need the wine?" Since wine is a good stimulant for jewelry buyers, it's off to the store in a rented convertible. If she's going to drive around the state for two weeks seeing friends and promoting her designs, she ought to let the wind blow through her hair, Reeves reasons. It also presents opportunities to reflect on her dreams and figure out ways to make them come true. Like the one where Reeves makes enough money to hire others to handle the planning, packaging and marketing full time while she concentrates on what she loves. Or the one where she opens her first store in SoHo and then her second — on Madison Avenue. She can also envision Mom and Dad's first "Oprah" appearance. And as she details her less-than-two-year rise from event planner to successful New York City jewelry designer, even without wine it's easy to see that anything is possible with Betsy Reeves. Oh, there were some hard times when she quit her job planning events for investment firms in Manhattan and started her company: Zubie Design NYC. "I actually had to move to Brooklyn." Not that Brooklyn is that bad. "It just didn't have the energy" Manhattan does, "the complete sensory overload" Reeves loves. After a year, she was back. "I think when I moved back to Manhattan I skipped for, like, two weeks." She works out of her apartment on the upper west side. Now, clients will be walking through a mall in Atlanta or Jacksonville and someone will ask: "Is that a Zubie ?" Word is spreading nationally through a web of loyal supporters and others who are just discovering Reeves' limited-edition pieces — all named after women and ranging in price from $30 to $600. When an Atlanta disc jockey last month declared Zubies one of her favorite things, Reeves got numerous orders, and about 100 people joined her mailing list. "It's so cool," says the 30-year-old, who gave her business the name of her maternal grandmother, a graceful and spirited woman from Savannah, Tenn., who "hates her name — and I love it." Reeves is in Lakeland on this recent Thursday for a trunk sale at the home of Jennifer Canady, a friend since third grade, when they attended St. Paul Lutheran School. The Florida visit will include being featured artist at a fundraiser for Ronald McDonald House Charities in Tampa, holding trunk sales in Tallahassee and Jacksonville and negotiating with boutiques in Palm Beach. (The only boutique carrying Zubies now is Bits of Art in Lakeland.) Coming up are trunk sales in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Atlanta and Denver. For Karen DeMichael, an art teacher at Harrison Center for the Visual and Performing Arts, where Reeves graduated in 1991, none of this is a surprise. "She was always very talented. Very motivated. Very self-motivated. She made things happen for herself." Her parents, Linda and Tom Reeves, a real estate appraiser, gave her lots of support and encouragement in pursuing her art and career. "She comes from a great family," DeMichael says, but, also: "Her motivation is just an innate thing. She's driven. But by herself." And any appearance that she's a bit spacey is only Reeves having an artist moment, DeMichael says. "She's very bright. She's very organized. She's highly creative, but she's creative in a structured way." Special Touch A painter through her early years, Reeves learned how to weld at Florida State University while earning bachelor's degrees in fine arts and art history, "and that became my passion." Designing and marketing her jewelry somehow combines all her talents. She even painted her own watercolor wrapping paper for gift-wrapped Zubies. Her Web site and catalog contain special touches, with the Web site organized by type of jewelry and color and the catalog offering sassy descriptions to help you buy the right piece for the right woman. Are you looking for something for "the lady who lunches but hasn't the time to eat" or one who "makes her point by brilliantly quoting Thoreau and Judy Tenuta"? Reeves even squirts a "signature scent" on all jewelry packages so that "every time you smell it, you think of Zubie ." And, after finding a place in New York that will cut stones to her liking, she's now designing them, too. "She thinks of every detail," says Dawn Van Fleet, a Clearwater and Philadelphia resident whose daughter met Reeves in New York and started wearing Zubies. The first time she saw her in one, Van Fleet was hooked. "Where did you get this?" she had to know, and now, whenever she's wearing a Zubie , that's the question Van Fleet hears. "I just get stopped from across the room" by women who have to know. A network of Zubie -wearing women has sprung up, including St. Petersburg mortgage banker Diane Keane, who offered her house for a trunk sale last November and recruited Reeves for the Ronald McDonald fundraiser. Besides loving the colors, styles and textures of the jewelry, Keane enjoys helping Reeves pursue her passion. "I always think it's important for women to support each other," Keane says. This all fits well into Reeves' marketing plan, partly based on a book: "The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference," about how trends are created. Web Of Friends There's "just this little web of people telling people," Reeves says. "People [especially women] get excited about someone wanting to follow their dream and they want to help you with that. "It's like the old saying: "You've got to know people.' And I don't know people, but I know people who know people." That helped especially in the early stages, when two friends who are makeup artists at Bloomberg TV and CNN started wearing Reeves' jewelry to work. Zubies were in the faces of well-paid anchor people — and they bit. Her friends "would call me at noon and say, "How much is this?' " because an anchor had seen it and wanted to buy it. Now she has "developed a really loyal base of clients at Bloomberg who are just wonderful," Reeves says. And she enjoys seeing her creations on television. Marty Wall, a family friend and one of several Lakeland clients who helped keep Reeves afloat when she was starting out, says she's really not a jewelry person, but there's something about Zubies. You can wear them to work or formal occasions, or even with a simple pants and top, Wall says. Whatever the outfit, "Her jewelry looks appropriate with it and makes you feel that much more dressed up. "It just makes me feel good to wear it, and I always get comments like, "Oh, I love your necklace,' " Wall says. Reeves' loyal customers love the originality of Zubies and the way she will design pieces for a specific person or a specific outfit. "If someone likes something that I don't think looks good on them, I won't sell it to them," Reeves says. Then she'll "tell them what does look good on them" and design it. Once the Lakeland trunk show gets going, Reeves introduces some new earrings named "Mickey," her answer to the popular chandelier earrings. Everyone has to try them. "I feel like I'm getting closer to my style," Reeves says. "This is going to be my ticket — I feel it." Later, during a telephone interview from Philadelphia, Van Fleet talks about seeing the new earrings and how thrilled she is to be hosting a trunk sale this month. "I'm excited. We kind of keep our fingers crossed and say, "Oh, you're just this side of making it huge.' " (CHART) What Is A Zubie ? Zubies are handmade necklaces, bracelets and earrings, made mostly of semiprecious stones, but some glass and other materials are used. For information, visit www.zubienyc.com. Reporter Cheryl N. Schmidt can be reached at (863) 683-6531.