Deborah began as a self-taught jeweler at the age of only 15, when she took her passion and skill for creating medieval chainmaille armor, and applied it as best she could at the time to creating jewelry. Deborah began taking core curriculum courses at Austin Community College at around the same time, through the early college start program. When it came time to decide on a major, she was pleasantly surprised to see that ACC had a Jewelry Department, and applied her passion to learning all the skills needed to take her own jewelry creations to the next level, whilst earning her Associate of Applied Science in Jewelry.
After Deborah graduated from the Jewelry program, she struggled for several years with the business side of being a jeweler. She wanted to reach a broad audience, but selling her work online was not one of the many skills that she was taught at ACC. Deborah again embraced the unknown, and determined to teach herself how to be marketable and profitable through her own jewelry business, Femailler. She taught herself how to cultivate an abundance mindset, set sustainable prices, create great product photography, design engaging packaging, and, most importantly, connect with customers on a personal level. All of these skills landed her on national television, as a contestant on the first reality TV show produced by a home shopping network, JTV’s Rockstar Designer. But that wasn’t the first time her work had been featured on national television — only months beforehand, Deborah’s jewelry was worn on CBS’s #1 daytime drama, The Young and the Restless. Since then, her jewelry has been worn on television more than a dozen times, on such hit TV shows as Bones, The Vampire Diaries, This Is Us, Law & Order: SVU, and more.
Deborah decided to take everything she had learned about business and, at the age of 29, returned to Austin Community College to teach Business Practices for Artisans, which is available online as a distance learning course. Deborah has also taken her marketing skills and applied them to the Jewelry Department, as their Social Media Director, causing exponential growth and increased exposure for the Jewelry Department’s online presence. Her goal is to never again hear another person say, “Oh! I didn’t know that ACC had a Jewelry Department” as she brings awareness of this wonderful program to all Austinites.
