The Restock Fund

WHAT IS THE NU BAMBOO?

The Nu Bamboo is a handbraided earring line. I was inspired to start my business because of my love for gold jewelry. I could not afford solid gold jewelry so I tried costume jewelry that would turn green on me, and gold plated jewelry that would turn silver on me very quickly. I was frustrated by this because although I loved gold (especially gold earrings), I knew I could not afford to own gold jewelry that would last me more than a week. I then decided that there was a gap in the jewelry market for jewelry that is considered costume jewelry, but lasts a little longer than traditional costume jewelry. After brainstorming for a very long time I finally came up with the idea to try making jewelry with some kind of fabric. Fabric was the one thing I could think of that wouldn't tarnish after being exposed to water or oil from skin. I just had to figure out how to use it on an earring! And how I was going to make jewelry with fabric that had the same metallic flair that gold and silver did. I searched endlessly for months and months on end for the right materials to start playing around with designs. I eventually got to the jewelry I design now, which is 90% waterproof (excluding the small parts of the hoop earrings underneath that are exposed to the elements, which are located near the clasp of the hoop). I finally came up with the two styles I originally launched my business with and I opened up shop on May 17th of 2019.

WHAT THIS CAMPAIGN IS FOR

Since opening, I have released dozens more styles in different colors and with different braiding methods. I am currently trying to bring back older styles that I unfortunately had to discontinue because I could not find the material for them anymore. It would be amazing to find the funds I need so I can be able to afford to purchase minimum order quantities (MOQ) of the material from my vendor! That is my dream at the moment. There are so many beautiful styles and colors that I loved selling and seeing my customers wear that I would like to bring back. I'm having 6 of them custom made, and there are also two other color ways that my vendor already had in stock that they are permanently discontinuing. My customers loved those two color ways as well. If we reach this goal, I'll be able to get them all made in bulk at the same time, instead of only purchasing one color way now and waiting 5 months for it to get to me. My vendor also informed me recently that their raw material supplier raised their MOQ by 160%, which means I have to purchase even bigger amounts of each individual color for them to even fulfill the order.

HOW YOU'D HELP

Not only will this campaign help with our wholesale order, but it will also help the business in other ways. I was blessed enough to be able to hire our first employee in January. She has been a huge help in helping me try to get caught up on orders. Since I have been behind for some time now because I've been doing everything alone, orders have slowed down a ton from last year. I haven't even been able to properly promote or advertise the business. Any leftovers we have from this campaign after it is over will be used towards payroll while we get these orders caught up, and our processing times back down. 

OUR DREAM

Our dream is to have plenty of material to make whatever earrings we (and you) want! We want our customers to have a full range of colors and styles to choose from. In the past, we've sourced small amounts of the materials we need from retailers that eventually ended up discontinuing that same material. For example, I once found a beautiful emerald green and gold thread to make earrings with. I bought it and made an earring with it. I completely fell in love! However, when I went to purchase more, I saw that only a couple of yards were available for purchase, which meant I was only able to sell a handful of pairs before we had to discontinue them. While limited edition styles are fun sometimes, hitting this goal would make it possible for us to bring any styles we couldn't keep for long permanent! 

THANK YOU

Thank you all for even reading this, even if you can't or choose not to contribute. And a HUGE thank you in advance to any of our supporters that choose to. Each contribution means the world to me. My business is my baby, and has completely changed my life. With that being said, the business is growing, and so are the expenses. As well as the stress. Things are incredibly hectic for myself and my employee right now, and this campaign was a way for me to avoid continuously running sales to try to be able to afford this order and other business expenses, including payroll. That's a recipe for disaster for a handmade business that is already behind. So once again, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! -Jusme Kamil