“L” is for Lisa Mottla, a 34-year veteran of the hairdressing industry. “A” is for Avery Mottla, Lisa’s 22-year-old daughter, who recently graduated from college in Chicago, majoring in film and broadcasting. “Grace” is Avery’s middle name, and it was Avery who put it all together to christen their jewelry design and production business, LA Grace, in June 2015.
To get the whole story, back up seven years to the day Lisa commented to a stranger in New York that she liked a piece of jewelry the woman wore. Lisa contacted the owner of the company, who asked, “What if I sent you some pieces and see if you can sell them in Minnesota?” After a cold call for a job she’d never done before, Lisa sold all the inventory she had on hand. What Lisa learned was that she’s interested in the jewelry business, and has a talent for it, too.
Lisa kept cutting and styling hair, but over the next seven years she “got to understand the jewelry business,” she says. She developed a relationship with the SMILE network, a 501(c)3 humanitarian organization that provides surgery and health care to children and adults in developing nations. “I started doing tables at their events,” she says, where jewelry makers sold their pieces and donated a portion of the proceeds to SMILE. Avery was in high school at the time but often helped her mother, setting up trunk shows and ringing up sales.
Later, the duo had the conversation about starting a jewelry business together, and founded LA Grace. Their greatest strength was and continues to be a “very strong design aesthetic,” says Lisa. While neither she nor Avery was versed in jewelry-making, they took themselves to a natural stone distributor and became acquainted with exotic-sounding stones like amazonite, labradorite and Druze agate, a small cache of which they purchased. The first piece they made was a bracelet, but there was a lot of trial and error. Feedback from first customers was that lobster clasps were difficult to manage. Also, wire that was good for other materials failed with the weight of natural stone beads. They upgraded their wire, took back and restrung every piece they’d made and sold to that point. They also incorporated a new kind of clasp that’s hand-forged and pretty enough, says Lisa, that clients swing them around to the front when they wear a piece of LA Grace jewelry. They even got Dad involved. Avery says, “My dad had a coin collection when he was young. We knew when we created our pieces, we wanted something to hang from them.” They used his coins for a few early pieces, and now use other vintage coins, many of which Avery oxidizes in a hand-painting technique that produces a variety of colorful patinas.
LA Grace necklaces and bracelets have recently been available at Equation boutique in Edina. This was a tremendous business boost, but gave Lisa pause because it meant they’d have to step up production. LA Grace is currently considering facility and labor options, including training women in transition to fabricate their pieces. Jewelry is also available for purchase online at lagraceco.com and at the SMILE network international store located in Loring Park in Minneapolis.
