Barlow juggles family, dorm life and jewelry business at FCA home

By Leslie N. Dees

FRENCH CAMP – Tucked away in a small room in her home on the campus of French Camp Academy, Tonya Barlow creates her monogrammed wooden and acrylic jewelry with some help from her family.

Containers of colorful beads and wooden chips can be found along with her engraving machine, where the necklace, bracelets and earrings are assembled.

“About a year and a half ago, I started monogramming wood,” Barlow, who started making jewelry several years ago, said.

The wooden and acrylic medallions and colorful beads used in necklaces and bracelets come in various shapes and sizes. The items are customized by the specification of the buyer.

Barlow is enjoying the success of her jewelry business but she says she keeps her priorities in line.

Barlow not only juggles her three sons, Kade, 6, Holt, 5, and Knox, 8 months, but she and her husband, Scott, are dorm parents to 11 teenage girls at FCA.

“We felt like the Lord was really leading us here” to be dorm parents, Barlow said. “That’s really a higher priority over the jewelry.”

Barlow said she is blessed to have a business that keeps her on her toes.

“It’s enough to keep me busy two to three days a week,” Barlow said. “I only work when my kids are in school from 8 to 3.”

Barlow said she was doing all the jewelry by herself but as business has grown her family has pitched in to help her.

Barlow and her sister, Tera Varner, have an assembly line of sorts in the workshop.

Her sister engraves while Barlow strings beads and attaches clasps.

After the orders are complete and placed in mailing envelopes, Barlow’s husband, Scott, picks them up and takes then to the post office.

“It’s a like a little factory,” Barlow said.

Barlow also does parties, where she shows her jewelry in homes and sells them to groups.

Her sister and mom, Denise McClurg, help out with the parties so that Barlow can spend time with her family and the dorm girls.

Even her dorm girls pitch in to help.

“At Christmas, I got really busy and had to get some helpers,” Barlow said. “I had to recruit a bunch of my girls and my family members just to get everything done in time.”

“As long as it’s not like that all the time I can handle it,” Barlow said. “It was crazy.”

She estimates at Christmas she did about 1,000 orders.

And the Web site, www.tonyabarlow.com, also brings the orders in.

Barlow said she has shipped to most of the Southeastern United States as well as New York and Wisconsin and hopes to reach all 50 states one day.

“My parents instilled in me a very good work ethic at a very young age,” Barlow said. “I think that’s why I can do it because I am very determined.”

Eleven stores carry Barlow’s jewelry, all are in Mississippi except for the one in Charleston, Mo.

Right now, Barlow is preparing for the Canton Flea Market. She said she plans to attend the Canton Flea Market twice and the Neshoba County Fair.

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