Lombardo some more pieces, and sent her home with another assignment. Before long, Cathy was sending Lombardo home with all kinds of projects. “She gave me a loom, some leather, and some beads, and then would challenge me.” Lombardo explains. “She would turn it into a game and tell me that I only had two days to complete the challenge or I would lose.” She chuckles. “The more projects and challenges she gave me, the more I would hurry and try to get them done early to impress her even more. I was making all kinds of great things, and it felt amazing!” She reminisces. “Then, it finally hit me one day, kind of like my A-ha moment. I had finally found something that I was passionate about, and I was slowly starting to feel good about myself again. Cathy had showed me through her little challenges that I had a purpose inside of me that I didn’t even know I had. She knew what she was up to the whole time, like a guardian angel looking over me.”
Soon, Lombardo would venture out and start her own jewelry design business and “Ria’s Beaded Blessings” was born. The name Ria comes from her childhood nickname which has followed her all throughout her life. “My name is Maria, but at some point all of my family and friends started calling me Ria for short.” She explains. “The name just kind of stuck, so now I guess I am stuck with it!” She chuckles and laughs.
She would spend every evening after work locked away in her little “jewelry cave” as she calls it, making beaded bracelets and necklaces; and then on the weekends she would take them to craft and jewelry bazaars at local country clubs to sell them. “I remember my very first order.” She recalls. “I sold six ‘Crosses’ bracelets to someone that was going to give them as Christmas gifts to their friends and family. It was so exciting! I couldn’t believe that people loved my jewelry and would spend money on it.”
Word of mouth started to spread through her big Italian family and large circle of friends, and suddenly she was being bombarded with orders. “My girlfriends would advertise for me everywhere they went.” She explains. “I would wear my own pieces around town when I would go out and ladies would come up to me and ask where I got my jewelry from. It was so crazy. I was completely blown away and humbled.”
As time passed her business grew and grew, and like that old cliché says, the rest is history. You can now find her pieces all over the world as she has taken her brand to the global online marketplace.
As we sat talking with Lombardo about her incredible and motivating story, we wanted to learn more about the designer’s own personal philosophy on how women should accessorize and express themselves through their jewelry. “Simple unique pieces are best.” She explains. “Women don’t even realize how they can change a whole look with jewelry. You can take a simple outfit, say a turtleneck casual dress, and then layer it with a 3-tiered look. Start with a choker, then a medium length chain underneath, followed by a long necklace with a charm or amulet on the end, and you’ve changed the entire look. Or,” she continues, “if you are wearing something shorter sleeved like a t-shirt or maybe even a designer blouse, then throw on 3 to 5 bracelets on one wrist, (Continued)
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