Meet Ann Floyd of Kansas City

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ann Floyd

Hi Ann, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Well, about 13yrs. ago, I felt God calling me to get out my comfort zone (Philippines) which is home. I felt Him inviting me to explore new adventures and to fully trust Him with the unknown. That’s the time that I met my best friend, my husband (Shane Floyd). Long-story short, I left home and decided to move here to United States. It wasn’t that easy. I had to leave precious people like my family and friends.

When I got here, it was so different. The culture and the people. It’s was hard cuz I didn’t have friends or community that I can hang out with. It felt so lonely. It’s so hard to be away from my parents and siblings. I felt like a total stranger to everyone here. I’m just thankful that I have my husband and babies. I have an awesome in-laws. They helped me so much handling those difficult times, but again, it’s just really hard.
I do remember telling my husband one night, “I feel so lost”. I told him “I just don’t have passion at all”. I could tell he’s heart-broken to hear that. I just felt so depressed and that lasted for almost 2-3yrs. That season felt really long.

But that story totally changed! One night, my husband came home from work and he’s just so excited. He said “you gotta see this! You gotta see this! I think this is something that you can easily do and you might end up really liking it.” So he pulled out his phone from his pocket, started scrolling thru his phone and showed me pictures of insane and amazing high-end wire wrapped jewelry made by these absolute talented people from around the globe. It was just so awesome! Their work is mind-blowing! I asked him ” how can you even make that?!”. I got really excited and thought, “I would like to try learning it.” And so I did!

I started learning how to make wire wrapped jewelry. I was pretty much a self-taught. Every night, when everyone is already sleeping, no matter how late it is, it didn’t bother me. I would just go in to my craft room and just figure out how to wire wrap. I became good at it. I remember the first time I shared and posted my work online, people started reaching out and asked if I would sell them. I had bunch of people asking if I could do custom work for them too and so that’s where the hobby became a business. Doors got opened where I could do more than high-end wire wrapped jewelry. I started joining to jewelry classes and trainings just to be a certified jeweler. I started learning how engrave, to melt your precious metals, to roll, make your own gold and silver sheets. I have learned to fabricate and solder them. I also learned to do stone-setting and be able to identify beautiful and exotic gemstones.

My absolute favorite part of doing this business, is whenever I do custom work and it’s finally time to hand my clients their piece. After collaborating, sharing ideas and long nights of working, when I hand them their piece, I get to witness their beautiful emotions. Most of the time, I see tears of joy on their faces cuz they couldn’t help but to be in awe on what they’re seeing. Their piece speaks so much to them. They’re seeing their ideas and thoughts finally come to reality but somehow, the work always surpasses their expectations. I just love seeing their joy! It’s amazing! And that’s when I know that the hard work is paid-off! Not the money but the joy that I get to witness in front of me.

The Lord brought a beautiful turn-around thru this gift. Thru this, I started meeting amazing people everywhere, online or in person. Most of the clients I get to meet usually end up becoming my good friends. When I collaborate with them, we get to share stories of our lives. Our roots, our cultures, backgrounds and even food that we love. It’s such a wonderful opportunity that I get to have. The Lord also opened up a door where I can have an awesome community where I feel welcomed and belonged-to.

These amazing things that I get to have is because of Him, Jesus. He is so kind and He is faithful. I wanna make sure that ALL the credit goes to Him. Because He is the only reason why I have a story to share, with Voyage family ( amazing people by the way! Just really amazing people! Thank you! Thank you!) and with our beautiful readers. Without Him, Ann Floyd wouldn’t have a story to share. He made sure that those many nights of loneliness and tears would have something to say later on. There’s so many beautiful things He did for me and this wonderful opportunity to share a story is only one of those many things. If He can do it for me, He’d love to do it for you too. He is so kind and He is faithful.

I hope that my simple story speaks to you!

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Pandemic. Pandemic really affected everyone. Specially small businesses like mine. Since nobody could really afford to spend money on stuff like jewelry, the whole time that there was a pandemic, I wasn’t able to sell my pieces and get clients. Most of people lost their jobs and it was just really hard. For a lot of people they can barely pay their bills, so how can they afford to buy stuff like my products?

I just thank God that the reason why I create jewelry isn’t about just making money. It’s about my passion to connect with people and to inspire lives. So pandemic didn’t really stop me from creating. I was actually able to have a season that I can just focus on enhancing my skills. Yes, I might not have made money during those times but I was able to improve what’s lacking.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a jewelry designer and maker based in Missouri. I make and sell jewelry pieces but I specialize custom work. I love being commissioned, making one-of-a-kind pieces for people.

Like I said earlier, the thing that I love the most about doing this kind of work is being able to connect with people from everywhere and being able to collaborate with them.

Whenever someone collaborate with Annollah Co. (our jewelry company), the thing that I want to make sure is that our clients get to have the freedom to design their piece. From what precious metal to use, center-piece, what accents to add all the way to designing their piece, I want to give them the opportunity to partner with me. I want to give them room to bring their ideas to the table, I love and want to hear their thoughts and expectations just to be able to produce a very personal and the best piece that would represent them the most. A special piece that would really suit their taste and personality. I want the piece that we get to make to look so unique and so different.

I take my time to really analyze the design and carefully adopt every detail that my client shares. It’s their input that needs to be seen on the piece. Yes, maybe a little bit of mine but the goal is, it has to represent them and not me. When I see that they’re very pleased with the outcome of the finished work, then I just hit the goal. Because that, I am grateful.

In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
You know, as much as I love creating and producing incredible pieces, I would really like to give-back to the community around us by sharing the knowledge that I have when it comes to producing art. There’s just so many things that you can learn and do. You get to learn how to sketch, engrave professionally, learn how to use CAD programs, learn to cut your own gemstones, do media, run your business and many more! There’s just so much and it’s really fun!

So within those years, I hope that I could open up a training center where I could have people learn from amazing professional jewelers. I would like to open a place where someone can be certified and become a pro in the industry. Specially young people. As a youth, I struggled so much finding the right place to be, like a safe community and so because of that, I really long to provide a safe place where they would feel welcome to manifest their amazing God-given talents thru art and jewelry. It’s heart-breaking to see such a beautiful soul become so damaged just because of the wrong atmosphere and place they get to be in. That’s why would like to open a place.

Instead of getting wasted on drugs and alcohol, they can come to this training center and really benefit. That is my hope.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annollah.co/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/annollahjewelry/