This artist has her hearts in the right place-the web-for successful sales
Lockets long held a special allure for Lauren Bradford， an artist， photographer， entrepreneur and amateur web designer. Her family had introduced her to the nuances of the jewelry trade， and her varied background prepared her well to start a business of her own. Yet， as she prepared to take that step， she wondered： Was there a large enough mardet out there for lockets？
"I wasn't sure at first，" she said. "But with the web， you're really drawing from the entire country and beyond. Today， I send lockets to England and places around the world. We once even shipped to someone working in the Arctic Circle."
Her customers typically keep photos of family members in their lockets-or， in some cases， fingernail-size images of pets. Others tuck away some of their loved one's ashes. One of .Bradford's own lockets contains a tiny bit of loose mortar she collected while touring the Christian catacombs in Rome.
Jewelry with significance
The company's website， Heartsmith.com， offers several hundred of the hinged charms， to which Breadford gives names such as Verronica， Celeste， Camelot and Peapod.
Tow part-time employees help handle marketing， inventory and shipping out of Bradford's 650-squeeare-foot office. Things get busiest around Christmas， Mother's Day and now， the run-up to Valentine's Day.
Heartsmith has attracted a following among members of the U.S. military， who place about 10 percent of its orders， Bradford said. Some of the e-mails she's received from them stay pinned to her cubicle walls.
One Army major thanked her for the locket he now wears his neck， containing a photo of order a gold locket for his wife.
"It's heartening to be able to read that people touched by what we do，" Braddord said.
Word
Allure （n） attraction， charm or excitement
Nuance （n） a quality of something that is not easy to notice but may be important
Tuck away （n） to put something valuable in a safe place
Ashes （pl n） what is left of a human body after it has been cremated
Mortar （n） a mixture of sand， water， and cement or lime that is used to join bricks or stones together when building walls
Catacombs （pl n） a series of underground passages and rooms where bodies were buried in the past.
Run-up （n） the period before an important event
Lockets long held a special allure for Lauren Bradford， an artist， photographer， entrepreneur and amateur web designer. Her family had introduced her to the nuances of the jewelry trade， and her varied background prepared her well to start a business of her own. Yet， as she prepared to take that step， she wondered： Was there a large enough mardet out there for lockets？
"I wasn't sure at first，" she said. "But with the web， you're really drawing from the entire country and beyond. Today， I send lockets to England and places around the world. We once even shipped to someone working in the Arctic Circle."
Her customers typically keep photos of family members in their lockets-or， in some cases， fingernail-size images of pets. Others tuck away some of their loved one's ashes. One of .Bradford's own lockets contains a tiny bit of loose mortar she collected while touring the Christian catacombs in Rome.
Jewelry with significance
The company's website， Heartsmith.com， offers several hundred of the hinged charms， to which Breadford gives names such as Verronica， Celeste， Camelot and Peapod.
Tow part-time employees help handle marketing， inventory and shipping out of Bradford's 650-squeeare-foot office. Things get busiest around Christmas， Mother's Day and now， the run-up to Valentine's Day.
Heartsmith has attracted a following among members of the U.S. military， who place about 10 percent of its orders， Bradford said. Some of the e-mails she's received from them stay pinned to her cubicle walls.
One Army major thanked her for the locket he now wears his neck， containing a photo of order a gold locket for his wife.
"It's heartening to be able to read that people touched by what we do，" Braddord said.
Word
Allure （n） attraction， charm or excitement
Nuance （n） a quality of something that is not easy to notice but may be important
Tuck away （n） to put something valuable in a safe place
Ashes （pl n） what is left of a human body after it has been cremated
Mortar （n） a mixture of sand， water， and cement or lime that is used to join bricks or stones together when building walls
Catacombs （pl n） a series of underground passages and rooms where bodies were buried in the past.
Run-up （n） the period before an important event