Silpada Celebrates It’s 10th Year

KansasCity.com:

Ten years ago two Johnson County moms who loved to accessorize started a sterling silver jewelry company they named Silpada.

Close to 5,000 of their closest girlfriends — Silpada chicks — have come to Kansas City this week to help them celebrate their 10th anniversary.

And, as if Bonnie Kelly and Teresa Walsh needed any more reason to whoop it up, the businesswomen have inspired a national award for women to be given by Redbook magazine.

It’s just the latest coup for a company that Kelly, of Olathe, and Walsh, who lives in Leawood, started with a box of costume jewelry. Today more than 20,000 Silpada representatives sell the company’s $12 toe rings and $269 charm bracelets — the average piece costs $58 — through in-home parties.

Some of those reps, almost all women, earn six-figure salaries selling bangles and such.

“I think Teresa and I had such a passion for jewelry, and offering that opportunity to other women, that we just moved forward each day as it went,” Kelly said. “You kind of look up and go ‘Oh, my gosh, this is absolutely amazing.’ ”