Leland, having a Marketing Mgmt degree has been involved in the start up of four successful Retail Jewelry Stores. Shortly after his first start up in 1976 he was introduced to the basics of jewelry repair and knew within short period of time that he had found his true passion: to develop his technical skills as a bench jeweler. Leland is in his 29th year as a bench technician. Six years ago, he and his wife of 29 years, Nancy, followed a desire that they had and started designing jewelry, specifically, Christian jewelry. They knew that fashionable Christian jewelry was not available, so they were inspired to put their focus and faith in that area of the jewelry business. They also saw where they would have opportunity to share their faith through faith designs and, hopefully, inspire others with the concepts, or messages within the designs themselves.
Nancy has been a major part of the designs and inspiration of the faith jewelry. She has worked along side Leland in the jewelry business for almost 20 years, has a natural artistic flare, therefore contributing to design details, and has actually designed many of the pieces.
One of the amazing things to Leland and Nancy is how God has prepared them for the jewelry business. Like so many other testimonies, when they look back, its obvious God was helping Leland and Nancy to develop both technical skills and creative ideas that eventually applied to the designs in their jewelry. There is a saying that goes: “God doesn’t use people who think they’re equipped, God equips people who aren’t.” Leland never considered himself to be a designer nor an artist. However, he has always had an interest in the types of things that fueled his desire to learn more about the technical part of the jewelry business. Once he realized that his years of gold work, stone setting, and intricate work had developed his attention to details to the point that he could transfer those skills into sculpting and designing fine jewelry.
The message of Leland and Nancy’s collection of jewelry; Lana Jewelry Designs is clear. 1 Peter 3:18 says: “For Christ suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit.” Jesus Christ did for us what we could not have done for ourselves and everything he did was to accomplish one purpose. Seven words in the previous verse sum it up so clearly and succinctly that it should be obvious, yet many miss the simplicity of it. “That He might bring us to God.” This is the message of Lana. For people to realize that being a Christian is not about religion but a relationship that is intimate with God as our Father and creator. He wants us to go beyond the typical boundaries of this world and experience at a spiritual level who he really is.
Lana Design, LLC is located in St Cloud, MN and is solely owned by Leland and Nancy Smith.
FineJewelryofFaith.com features, manages, and markets Lana Design's collections.
FineJewelryofFaith.com is located in Buffalo, MN and is owned by Sunergos Enterprizes, LP.
