She Retired at 58 to Turn Her Hobby Into a Business: ‘No Regrets’

In 2024, Anna Hudick, then 58, came out of a decade-long retirement engineering career to go all in it hobby returned business: handmade jewelry line Inside my medal.

Hudick, who lives in Harrisonburg, Virginia, always had a creative side, but when she was young, thinking about a career, having a comfortable income was on her mind.

With a knack for math, Hudick studied mechanical engineering in college, then began her career. She was a certified lighting designer and focused on building systems – from home design to small scale industrial commercial buildings.

However, Hudick’s interest in jewelry, which began at age eight when she tagged along with her mother and a friend at jewelry and jewelry shows, never waned. In 2006, Hudick rekindled the spark during Jewelry Week in Las Vegas in a jewelry-making class.

“(The instructor) was hammering out freshwater pearl jewelry and custom focal beads made from hand-blown glass,” Hudick says. entrepreneur“so that was my first design.”

The next year, Hudick took another class with the same instructor. She then began taking lessons in various mediums. More than a decade in her creativity hobbyin 2018, Hudick settled on her favorite mode of design: traditional metalwork.

Selling her jewelry designs and teaching craft classes

Along the way, friends encouraged Hudick to sell her jewelry designs. Hudick started selling some of those parts, and by the time she felt ready to retire as an engineer, she was excited to focus on the business full time.

About a year and a half ago, Hudick also began teaching jewelry-making classes, which she has hosted at a local vineyard and coffee shop.

“It’s been so fun,” says Hudick, “because you can watch people change. They’re coming in after work, stressed, and they have two hours where they’re not connected to their phone or their email. They just relax. Then when they’re done, they’re so happy with what they’ve done. It’s really fulfilling.”

The cost of growing a handmade jewelry business

When Hudick retired from engineering, her annual salary was $89,900.

“I have no regrets about retiring,” Hudick says, “except that I got to dive in retirement account. That’s what it was there for, but being too young to really benefit and not be penalized (would be) my only regret.” Most retirement accounts allow penalty-free withdrawals starting at age 591⁄2.

In 2025, Hudick’s first year as a full-time artist, her sales were approximately $23,000. She plowed that income back into the business to pay for supplies, classes and other expenses.

Most of Hudick’s designs are in sterling silver; it mainly sources from the Rio Grande, one of the largest suppliers of silver.

Unfortunately, FEES have increased the cost of materials. In 2024, Hudick recalls paying about $33 per troy ounce for silver. That price rose last year, hitting the $70 to $80 range — then hitting $100 last March, she notes.

“So it’s a little challenging to buy new materials,” says Hudick. “I’ve been trying to work with what I have and reuse a lot of my scraps.”

The pricing challenge

Pricing because her designs can be challenging, says Hudick. A traditional formula might include the cost of materials and time, usually an hourly rate applied to how long it takes to create the piece, multiplied by a factor of three or four.

“That can be very expensive,” says Hudick. “I can easily spend eight hours on a piece. So I’m $50 an hour? I don’t know. But is that what I want to charge someone? I’m not competing with a huge jewelry empire. Everything is handmade and I want that quality craftsmanship to show. But it can be uncomfortable to charge that price.”

Hudick charges between $65 and $75 per person for her jewelry-making workshops.

Hudick used sterling silver in the first classes he taught, then expanded to bronze and copper, which allows for a more affordable price.

Building an email list and larger audience

At first, when Hudick started selling her pieces, she used a Tupperware party-style approach to gain traction. Basically, she gave a host a discount for inviting their friends to read her pieces. That’s how Hudick built her initials email list.

From there, Hudick began attending art shows—indoors only to avoid the rigors of unpredictable weather.

She also has a website and social media sites, although these are not currently the main revenue drivers. Hudick hopes her classes will continue to increase awareness of her business and generate more sales.

Although “sales have been a little soft” so far this year, Hudick is adding more events, including a recent gallery show, to her rotation to get herself out there and in front of more customers.

“I know my clients are aging at the same rate I am,” says Hudick. “Even they will retire and say, ‘But Anna, I don’t wear jewelry anymore.’ And I’ll say, ‘Okay, but what about your daughter or granddaughter?’ So yeah, it’s a little difficult. I’m more of one introvertprobably from all the years of engineering.”

Applying engineering skills to jewelry design and business

But Hudick’s engineering career also equipped her with skills that have come in handy while building the business, she notes.

Hudick learned how stay organized and navigate the jewelry creation process, which isn’t necessarily intuitive. It takes practice and consistency. “Just like when you’re building a house, you have to have the foundation, then you build the walls, and then you have the decorative stuff, like the paintings,” she explains.

Hudick works in a 500 square meter studio located on her boyfriend’s farm. Each design begins with a special gemstone. She creates custom bezels to hold each stone, then mounts it to a silver back plate.

“A lot of times I’ll have sketched out a design ahead of time, but—and this sounds a little weird—sometimes it takes a while for the stone to tell me what it wants to be,” says Hudick.

For example, with her beach-inspired collection, she worked with fossils embellished with mother-of-pearl. A recent piece features a turquoise stone, which she turned back and forth by placing horizontally or vertically, with scrap silver melted around it, a newer technique in her repertoire.

I would have regretted not taking the opportunity.

Like all entrepreneurs, Hudick has had to deal with obstacles as they arise and learn on the job.

She cites the example of improving her photography skills; it can take hours to get the right photos, then edit and list them on your website and social media pages.

Through it all, though, Hudick says it support system of family and friends, even former co-workers when Inside My Locket was still a weekend hobby, has helped make the business what it is today.

Hudick encourages other retirees who want to take the leap into entrepreneurship to tap into their support network — then go for it.

“Just do it,” says Hudick. “I would have regretted not taking this opportunity for myself.”

In 2024, Anna Hudick, then 58, came out of a decade-long retirement engineering career to go all in it hobby returned business: handmade jewelry line Inside my medal.

Hudick, who lives in Harrisonburg, Virginia, always had a creative side, but when she was young, thinking about a career, having a comfortable income was on her mind.

With a knack for math, Hudick studied mechanical engineering in college, then began her career. She was a certified lighting designer and focused on building systems – from home design to small scale industrial commercial buildings.