TREMONTON - By Ellen Cook, Headliner Media Specialist, November 12, 2021
Pictured above: Abbie Miller, just 15 and a sophomore at Bear River High School, has a successful business making and selling earrings and bracelets. This is not her first business adventure, however. Courtesy Photo
Abbie Miller is not your typical teenager. Sure, she likes hanging out with friends and attending Bear River High School activities. She also likes having a little spending money in her pocket when she goes out.
But this 15-year-old has no desire to asked for a parental handout when her funds get low. You see, Abbie has, since an early age, had quite an entrepreneurial streak.
“I’ve always liked being able to have a way to make my own money, and not turn to my parents for that kind of stuff,” she said.
She has certainly put those words into action. At the age of eight, she opened her own summer lemonade stand outside her Tremonton home, quenching the thirst of friends, neighbors and passersby.
At 12, she was making fancy cupcakes and selling them to the hungry crowd who visited Everything Your Heart Desires.
Now in her teens, she has traded the culinary for the crafty. “I decided to try something new,” she said.
That “new” venture has made her the successful owner, operator and creator of Abbie Lane Jewelry, a business she began on Instagram, @_abbielane_ about a year ago.
Abbie’s “Live Life in Style” clay earrings and “Stylish Strands” string bracelets sold so well that she now has her own website at www.abbielane.net Abbie Lane
Her work is also available at Tremonton’s Main Street Mercantile. The unique baubles were a hit at a farmer’s market in Hyrum this summer, and equally popular at Tremonton City Days.
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But she is not done yet. Abbie will also have some of her creations at the craft fair this weekend being held at the Bear River Valley Senior Center.
So why the shift from sweets to style?
The answer was simple. “We learned how to make them (jewelry), and I thought they were fun to make. I thought I would give it a try and see how it goes.”
The earrings she makes are fashioned from polymer clay that is processed through a pasta machine to soften it and make it pliable. She uses cutters to form the clay into the desired shape, and then adds her own special designs, either in the clay itself or with other bits of colored clay.
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The finished product is then placed on a glass tile and baked. She can bake about ten sets is a run so making enough for the craft fair means a little extra time in the kitchen.
The bracelets are another matter. It is waxed string, beads, charms, braids or jewels. As she does with the earrings, Abbie brings in her mother, Leslie, “a whole lot” to help, which is also a good bonding time for the two.
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“We usually fit the bracelets in at night while we watch TV,” she said.
At 15, Abbie still has plenty of time to cement a career, and for now the jewelry business will keep her in spending money just fine. But future plans for this entrepreneur are already beginning to form.
“I want to be a cosmetologist and have my own salon,” she said with conviction.
And with her track record, it too, should be successful.
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