Why Handmade Jewelry Still Wins in the Age of AI

What happens when a jewelry artist builds a career around handmade work — and then watches technology completely reshape how small businesses operate?

In this episode of Bling Talks, Anthony Haddad sits down with Randi Chervitz, founder of Uncommon Threads, to talk about creativity, craftsmanship, entrepreneurship, technology, and the future of handmade jewelry.

Randi has been working in jewelry since 1991. Her path began with art, fashion, fiber techniques, and metalsmithing before evolving into a distinctive approach that combines techniques traditionally associated with crochet and fiber arts with metal.

Over the years, she built her business through art fairs, trade shows, wholesale relationships, custom work, galleries, online marketing, and direct customer relationships.

Randi also shares how the business side of being an artist has changed — from the early days before social media and modern online tools to today’s world of AI, automation, digital marketing, and endless business services competing for a small business owner’s attention.

One of the most interesting parts of the conversation is Randi’s approach to AI.

She uses AI to research ideas, explore marketing strategies, and ask better questions — but she does not want it replacing her voice, creativity, or decision-making.

For Randi, authenticity matters.

And as AI-generated content becomes more common, she believes handmade objects, human creativity, and the work of the hand may become even more meaningful.

In this episode:

• How Randi found her way into jewelry and metalsmithing

• Turning fiber and crochet techniques into metal jewelry