Meet Gianna, Ana Castiglione, Guevara | Co-founders, owners & artists

We had the good fortune of connecting with Gianna, Ana Castiglione, Guevara and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Gianna, Ana, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
We started having “bead parties” with our close friends, each of us bringing some jewelry-making supplies and hanging out together while we each created. We both fell in love with the process, but with this particular art form, there are only so many pieces you can create that you can use yourself. We started this business to share our art and give it new life!

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
We are most proud of both our artistic and personal growth. Not only has the quality of our products improved greatly since we started, but we’ve also managed to expand our reach and sales tremendously. To do this, it required a lot of consistency, especially in the world of social media. We were constantly putting out new pieces, making new posts, and reels on Instagram. In the first year, we primarily focused on gaining a social media and Etsy following. It wasn’t easy at first- we didn’t have a lot of experience. Months of research went into figuring out advertising, taxes, pricing, and outreach. We quickly had to learn that a big part of starting a business is coming to terms with the fact that there will be some monetary loss before you will see any success. The main lesson taken away from that is just to keep at it and continue to be consistent.

We want people to know that starting a business can be very daunting, but if you have it in your heart to do it, you should take the leap of faith and just get started! It requires lots of hard work and consistency, but in the end, it really pays off. We were initially very nervous that it wouldn’t take off, but we can both agree we’ve exceeded our expectations for ourselves, and this is one of the greatest choices we’ve made. We started this as two teenage girls going to community college in Statesville, North Carolina, so we didn’t have a lot of resources to start out with. Research, creativity, and a lot of persistence got us to where we are today.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
We both love shopping, so we would start with the mall. Ana’s choice would be South Point Mall in Chapel Hill because it holds a movie theatre. Gianna’s top choice is North Hills Mall in Raleigh, specifically for the Build-a-Bear. There are also several small shops and markets in the Triangle Area. One that we visited together is Firefly in Carrboro, which is a bead shop. We are always more than happy to visit craft stores.

For food, Ana recommends Canes or Sup Dogs in Chapel Hill. Gianna recently tried Noodles Boulevard in Raleigh and fell in love with it. Cristo’s in north Raleigh has fantastic pasta. There are multiple boba, coffee, and dessert shops just outside NC State and Chapel Hill that are fun to visit with friends as well.

The schools are also generally hosting events. Gianna frequents different art events around her campus, including theatre, dance, and musical performances. Ana enjoys attending school sports events, especially basketball and soccer games. As well, Durham Performing Arts Center often hosts Broadway tour shows. The Lion King is coming soon in May, which we’re excited about!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Our friends were extremely supportive when we decided to start our business and continue to be! They constantly help us promote our work on social media, hand out business cards, and wear our jewelry in public.

Student-Made has allowed us to expand our reach and create a local community in our respective school environments.

We’d also like to shoutout to artists on Instagram who inspired us to enter this field and opened our eyes to this artistic medium even existing!

Website: https://www.etsy.com/shop/ShopPixieTreasures?ref=shop_sugg_market

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shoppixietreasures/?next=%2F