From Instagram to Sports Illustrated
By Cathy Baldwin
This article originally appeared in the Summer 2014 issue.
Sisters Ashley and Jill of All Washed Up Jewelry at an arts and crafts show in Currituck.
The Rawls sisters like pretty things.
Ashley, the younger of the two, favors bold, eclectic jewelry; while older sister Jill prefers more understated and delicate designs.
They are a match made in jewelry heaven.
What started as a fun pastime—“A friend taught me how to make earrings,” says Ashley—has grown into All Washed Up Jewelry, a bona fide full-time business. “It turned into a full-on addiction,” she laughs.
“Last night we were up until 1 a.m. making jewelry to fill orders!” says Jill.
A variety of their popular stamped necklaces, which can also be customized.
Some of their most recognizable pieces are the personalized stamp necklaces, the tribal horns and the sharks’ teeth. “We work with 14 karat gold fill, brass, sterling silver, semi-precious stones, resin and vintage items,” says Ashley.
The sisters are young, hip, talented and not afraid to spend their weekends manning their jewelry booth at art shows, craft fairs and concerts getting their name and the jewelry out there. Their jewelry is in boutiques all up and down the beach, and they’ve branched out to both Virginia and South Carolina.
They are also blowing up on social media, regularly posting and updating their Etsy, Instagram and Facebook pages. Thanks to their Instagram account, All Washed Up Jewelry was recently discovered by a stylist and photographer team.
“They found us on Instagram,” says Ashley. “We were just writing silly hashtags and they found us.”
In addition to their necklaces, the Rawls sisters also make a full line of bracelets, cuffs, rings and earrings.
Taking a leap of faith, Ashley packed up most of the inventory and shipped it to them so that they could see and feel the jewelry in person. Shipping her jewelry to complete strangers was “scary,” but, says Ashley, “I thought, ‘What do I have to lose?’”
Soon afterwards All Washed Up Jewelry started popping up in national magazines. Their Rainbow Spike necklace was worn by a bikini model on sportsillustrated.com; in Elements magazine a model layered the “Dreaming of the Sea” stamped necklace and the Coral Stick necklace; and most recently a model wore both the Free Bird earrings and the Shark’s Tooth necklace in Geek Fantasy magazine.
The future is bright and exciting for the sisters. “We would love for the business to keep growing,” says Jill, “And maybe one day styling the stars!”
