Pink Pearls by Tamara – My Name, My New Cards
by Tamara Summers.
(Kitchener, Ontario, Canada)
This post is to share the journey of my name, to the point where I am now.
For a while, my friend and marketer Liana carried the torch for naming me. My birth name was actually Tammy, not Tamara, and if someone asked me as a child if Tammy was short for Tamara, I would reply with an emphatic “No!” But several years ago, after we had been friends for a while, Liana said playfully to me “Hello, Tamara! Is that your real name?” I said no (not emphatically any more), but she responded with “Tamara suits you more. It’s exotic, like you!” I’m exotic?
But in that moment, the name Tamara resonated with me, and it also seemed to call me forward to someone I wanted to be. So I started using it, except for when I was with people who knew me and related to me as Tammy.
Liana started to market my jewellery eventually, along with some jewellery she imported from Italy. I was content to just supply her with jewellery from the background. Her business had a name, but my line didn’t, and I didn’t even think about that. Then, one, day, while leaving a phone message for me, she said “Hello, Tamara-Mara”, then started to laugh and said “That’s your new name now!” It became her pet name for me, which I enjoyed.
But one evening, in an email, she said, “I’ve decided to name the line I carry from you, and I’m going to call it the Tamara-Mara Collection!” My immediate thought was “You’re joking, right?” Her next line was “I’m not joking!” I felt so many things at once – flattered and happy that she wanted to put me and my line out there, but vulnerable that she was bringing me out of the shadows, and that she had picked the pet name we shared.
But being the marketer she is, she created a little sign for her table, and when I saw it, I loved how it looked. Eventually I ordered business cards to match, and went with that for a couple of years. The descriptive line I had for my collection during that time was “Bohemian and Vintage-Inspired Elegance”.
Earlier this year, I started to feel that the name and description weren’t quite right for now. I spent a lot of time, and did a lot of thinking about what I loved regarding jewellery, and what I wanted my business to portray. For a while, nothing seemed to settle quite right. Then, one evening, I was adding some deep pink glass pearls to a piece, and had the thought “I love these pink pearls!”
It was immediately followed by another thought, “Pink Pearls – that would be a neat name for a jewellery business.” My jewellery business? I thought about it, and also did a little research on meanings. Being trained in yoga instruction, I knew that pink (and also green) are the colours of the heart chakra, or heart centre. I had spent the last few years doing a lot of inner work in the area of healing my heart.
And I learned that pearls symbolize that which is pure and precious. And natural pink pearls are some of the most rare. As I read this, I had an emotional connection and love for that name. It was the same sort of feeling I had when the name Tamara was brought to me. Thoughts of “Really, that’s me, that’s my business?” Followed by a sense that that was also the direction and the place I wanted to go. So I started to use that name (I told Liana she could still use Tamara-Mara for the line I created for her if she wanted, but she really liked Pink Pearls and asked me to explain the meaning to her, and now uses that as well.)
I waited quite a while before getting new business cards. Several weeks ago I started researching eco-friendly cards, because ideally that’s what I would have liked, and that relates to the eco-friendly way I obtain supplies. I found a card I liked and set it up, but literally half way through placing the order, that process was halted by a circumstance, and I didn’t get back to even thinking about business cards for a couple of weeks.
One early morning, I decided to just look at what deals Vista Print was offering. I ended up finding a card that resonated with me, at the same time seeing how I could personalize it to my business. I wanted one that would work for not only my jewellery, but also for my floral art. Within a very few minutes I had a card set up and 1,000 cards ordered for a very low price. The eco-friendly cards had been quite a bit more expensive. So it worked out the way it was meant to, I believe.
I didn’t put a descriptive line about my jewellery on the card since it’s for jewellery and floral, but came up with a short sentiment that reflects my desire for both – “from my Heart, to yours”. I want pure, precious expressions of a healed heart to go forth and connect with the heart of the person they were meant for.
And how I personalized my cards? There’s a beautiful zen-looking lotus flower (perfect for my floral) on the card, but I immediately saw myself taking some sort of pink pen and adding a pink pearl to the centre of the flower, in the heart of it.
And I found I had the perfect pen – a pink gel one that had silver mixed into the pink, giving my pearl a perfect luminous glow. To me it’s the marriage of heart, jewellery and flower that I desired.
Tamara Summers
Pink Pearls by Tamara
