marlene richey
virtual assistant . consultant
creative business solutions for creative businesses
specializing in the art, craft and jewelry markets
ABOUT MARLENE
My father was an art professor and my mother a freelance writer, neither of them had even a rudimentary knowledge of business. I received a BA in art and jewelry from Central Washington University, without anyone ever suggesting I might sometime want to make a living at what I had studied for four years. I married Bill Richey and we naively created what turned out to be an award-winning jewelry design firm with no idea of how to run a company. And that was the beginning of a long journey on learning the do’s and don’ts, ups and downs, ins and outs of running a small art business.
During my 30+ year career in jewelry I have run a wholesale design business, a retail gallery, participated in hundreds of shows - craft and trade, indoors and out, juried and not juried, dreadful and successful. I traveled for a decade selling our jewelry in every nook and cranny of the US. I have served on numerous boards of directors (currently Society of North American Goldsmiths), consult with emerging and not-so-emerging artists both nationally and internationally, teach seminars and classes (including at the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC), give speeches and participate on panels, write articles for jewelry/craft publications, write a regular column in Art Jewelry magazine called “Business Savvy” and have a book published by the MJSA Press on running a small jewelry design business called “Profiting by Design.”
“Profiting” won the Gold Award for the Society of National Association Publications in the spring of 2009 as well as Marlene winning the Contemporary Design Group’s Designer Advocate for 2009.
Contact me directly for an autographed copy of the book.
All client information remains strictly confidential, unless artist requests for me to share it.
