Bradlei Smith (pictured) knew there would be barriers, financial and otherwise, to switching careers to start her own jewelry brand, so she created her own educational program.

Smith, who’d been working as a fashion industry consultant, searched online for jewelry internships. She sought out museum exhibitions and lectures. She studied the big French jewelry houses in Paris—a relocation that allowed her to live abroad, as she’d wanted to. “I swam in it because I had to,” Smith recalls of learning the jewelry business.

Earlier this year, she saw an Instagram post about the Lonia Tate Scholarship, established in 2022 by Ben Bridge Jeweler to give aspirants like Smith training in the jewelry industry. Smith forwarded the post to her sister and business partner, Jocelynn Jacobs.

“I told her, ‘This is for me.’ She said I should apply, so I did,” Smith says. “I was scared, but I had been looking at GIA classes for five years. It was always a goal, but it was so expensive. I didn’t know how it would be feasible. Then I saw the scholarship and said, ‘This is it.’”

On July 22, Smith was announced as the winner of this year’s scholarship. “I’m so lucky, and I can’t wait to continue down this path and allow my glass ceiling to be someone else’s floor,” she says.

The Lonia Tate Scholarship is awarded in memory of a longtime associate at Ben Bridge Jeweler who made history as the first Black president of the Seattle chapter of Executive Women International. Tate was devoted to community building within the jewelry industry, and the scholarship honoring her is supported by the Black in Jewelry Coalition.

Smith will receive $10,000 to cover the cost of tuition and supplies for earning her Graduate Gemologist diploma from GIA. After graduation, she has the opportunity for a three-month paid internship with Ben Bridge Jeweler in Seattle.

Originally from Atlanta, Smith has lived and worked in three countries on three continents over the past seven years. She was in Senegal doing consulting work for fashion companies when she realized she wanted a future in the jewelry industry.

“I was responsible for sourcing materials, and their jewelry specifically. As I did that, I came in contact with the artisans and suppliers these companies were working with, and I built relationships. As I learned about what they did, I became enamored with the craftsmanship. It’s all done by hand, not by machines,” Smith says.

She commissioned jewelry pieces from these artisans for herself and her family, and that sparked the idea for her own jewelry brand. Smith enrolled in a Parisian business school to learn to the skills she would need to succeed at a large jewelry house.

Understanding that her path toward a Cartier or Chaumet would not be easy, Smith began making jewelry with her sister, mostly custom orders.

“Jewelry can be a generational business. But for someone like me, a first-generation jeweler, and for people of color who have a passion for it, you need mentorship. You need someone who will hold the door open for those who want to come in and demystify the business. You need someone to tell them that it’s feasible,” says Smith.

“My goal is to make mentorship and scholarship more accessible through this experience. Everyone deserves a seat at the table,” she adds.

(Photo courtesy of Ben Bridge Jeweler)

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