Meet the Knoxville woman behind a nationwide jewelry trend
Sick of fighting with a clasp to put on a bracelet every day? Want something you can keep on that's custom-fit, has meaning, and can match with a loved one? ACF Jewelry has the answer for you.
In fifth grade, Caroline Farris got in trouble for selling handmade jewelry out of her locker.
Now, it’s her full-time job.
“I did have a very deep love of jewelry making when I was young,” said Farris “I took a metals course in college, and I just fell in love with it, so I ended up minoring in metals.”
Farris took that knowledge and a suitcase and left for New York, where she spent three years working for couture fashion designer Cynthia Rowley.
On the side, she was still making jewelry as part of her own line, called ACF Jewelry. ACF stands for Amanda Caroline Farris, her full name.
She never put her passion aside, even when she moved back to Knoxville in 2015, working both in marketing and the restaurant world. Farris helped open the popular downtown Knoxville restaurant Emilia in 2016.
“I never let it die while I was working for other people,” said Farris. “Even in the restaurant world, I was still doing custom stuff on the side. And at one point, I had 10 wholesale accounts across the southeast. So I was doing what I could to feed my passion, my side hustle.”
In 2019, she made the jump from general manager of a popular restaurant to full-time jewelry artist.
Farris opened her first studio space on Jackson Avenue about 6 months before the pandemic hit, and had to pivot. But she’s a pretty good innovator and found a good way to get her name and product out there.
“I found a vending machine on Facebook marketplace,” she said. Farris spent a few days renovating it, and then the city’s only jewelry vending machine was born. She opened her street front studio door, pushed the vending machine into the threshold, and people come safely to shop.
“Yes, we’ll ship it,” she said. “But if someone wants to come and stay outside, do contactless pickup, we did that. It was really fun, and people were such good sports about it.
And along the way of navigating a storefront in a pandemic, Farris helped pioneer what ended up being a major trend across the country – semi-permanent jewelry.
“It’s clasp-less jewelry that you don’t remove daily,” said Farris. “We fit it to each person. I did mostly just bracelets for the first few years and now we do offer necklaces and anklets.”
Her Endless Chain offering is now trademarked, and she’s sold about 3,000 in the past few years.
“So the first two years was me, like, trying to convince people they wanted this, which is so funny,” said Farris. “And then literally overnight I feel like it went from ‘what are you doing?’ to ‘can I have it now.’”
Why would someone want a bracelet they can’t take off?
To commemorate something special. To wear as a friendship bracelet with your sister, mom, relative, or close friend. Something to always have with your significant other (it is Valentine’s Day after all). Or because you’re sick of trying to put on a bracelet yourself every day.
“I don’t care how old you are, it’s kind of annoying to put a bracelet on, and it usually doesn’t always fit right,” said Farris.
She puts these bracelets on customers in her new Jackson Avenue studio space in the Old City, which is a different spot than her pandemic vending machine location. While this jewelry can be broken off as needed, some people’s bracelets have been on for years. It can be soldered on with an open flame, but Farris uses special equipment she made herself.
“I rigged our equipment to do what we want,” said Farris. “Instead of a flame, we’re using low current. So it’s kind of like jumping a car.”
That sounds painful, but it’s not. It feels intimate like you’re getting a tattoo. But it doesn’t physically feel like anything, and you leave with a special memento.
“We are definitely first in the south and first in Tennessee,” said Farris. “And I want to be proud of myself for that. I’m most proud that I have been stubborn, in that at times when I haven’t known exactly where it’s going or what I’m doing, I’ve listened to my heart and gut and kept my business what I want it to be.”
It all goes back to that love of metals, and the spark of joy Farris got from selling jewelry out of her fifth-grade locker.
“You just absolutely don’t know if it’s going to work,” she said. “So you just have to go for it.”
You can visit ACF Jewelry at 111 E. Jackson Ave. Suite 203 in Downtown Knoxville.
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