HEAD = The Welding Bar: Turning a Part-Time Business into a Full-Time Career

 

If you’re looking for a fun Galentine’s or Valentine’s gift, consider a customized piece of permanent jewelry from Historic Brookhaven resident Ansley Eden and her business The Welding Bar. Ansley, who has been passionate about jewelry for years, recently returned home to Historic Brookhaven to work full-time on her business.

 

While in high school at Holy Innocents, she worked at Cindy Ensor Designs. In college, she found a jewelry mentor and launched The Welding Bar as a side gig. After graduating from the University of South Carolina, Ansley joined Atlanta-based Solomon Brothers Jewelers with the hopes of figuring out whether she wanted a career in jewelry. She briefly left to try something different in Charleston, but The Welding Bar, which she continued to run on the side, kept pulling her back to Georgia with client demand and pop-up shows at Cindy Ensor, Solomon Brothers, and various Buckhead boutiques. So she moved back to her family home on East Brookhaven Drive and is focusing on her business.

 

Permanent jewelry has no clasp and can be personalized with charms, fitted to your wrist, and then welded together. Ansley offers both precious and semi-precious stone charms, and makes permanent anklets and necklaces as well. Chains are 14K white or yellow gold, sterling silver, or gold filled. The Welding Bar is also expanding into non-permanent items.

 

With her move home, Ansley is looking forward to spending more time with her family, dogs, and friends. She loves playing tennis, taking barre classes, and trying new restaurants. She and her mom Terri are talking about being doubles partners. Terri, who has been a Cindy Ensor customer for years and first introduced Ansley to the store, now works there.

 

Editor’s Note: You can find The Welding Bar on Instagram at @theweldingbar, email Ansley at
 theweldingbar@gmail.com, or call or text her at (404) 783-7227. Pricing varies by chain length, with a sterling silver bracelet starting at $48 and a 14K gold one at roughly $200. Necklaces are priced per inch.

 

HEAD = Simple Hospitality: Resident Anna Hough Works with Mom to Market Coffee Table Book

 

Historic Brookhaven resident Anna Hough never dreamed she would be marketing her mother’s first book. Yet when she left a career in public relations and digital marketing at Home Depot last year to stay home with her two children, Margaret (3) and Palmer (1), that’s exactly what happened. Mom Jennifer Boyd published Simple Hospitality: An Invitation to Add Kindness to Your Everyday Life in May 2023 and Anna put her business and marketing skills to work again.

 

Simple Hospitality is partly satisfaction of a long-time dream to write a book for her family and partly the result of encouragement from friends to chronicle the many ways Jennifer has shared hospitality and kindness with others through the years. The coffee table book is a series of short chapters called invitations. “Her desire is that the book gives people ideas,” says Anna. “What is a way you can show kindness to others?”

 

For years, bookstores have carried books on table etiquette or manners, but none on what Jennifer calls the heart behind hospitality – kindness. “For my generation, the term hospitality feels a little overwhelming,” says Anna. “It just means being kind to each other. It doesn’t have to take a lot of time or money. Just look for opportunities during your day for who you can bless or be helpful to.”

 

The book has brought mother and daughter together in a new way. In addition to helping redesign Jennifer’s website and plan social media and marketing, Anna has helped her mom with the business side of being a published author.

 

Jennifer still lives in Windermere, FL, where Anna grew up. But the distance has not been an impediment and the two have worked well as a team. The book is available locally at Erika Reade, Boxwoods, and Lucy’s Market, and in St. Simons at the Sea Island Shop at The Cloister and Two Friends boutique. You can also purchase Simple Hospitality on Jennifer’s website (https://www.jenniferboydauthor.com/) or amazon.com (paperback version only).