Denver maker gets big boost at Holiday Market at Cherry Creek North

The Holiday Market at Cherry Creek North is made up of dozens of small businesses and makers, most of them locally owned. For some of these small businesses, a makers market is exactly what they need to get their businesses off the ground. 

In the middle of the Holiday Market, Arielle Zella has set up a mini-showroom.

"My background is in art and design," Zella explained. 

She's been an artist her whole life and has experimented with a wide variety of mediums. She studied dance in college, and worked with a professional dance company for awhile. 

"I could just tell that it was going to be a really, really hard life. As much as I loved it and felt passionate about it, I knew that I was very entrepreneurial," she said. 

She became a graphic designer, but still continued to pursue art as a hobby. She credits taking a class in silversmithing with showing her that jewelry was a feasible medium for her creativity. 

"Once I realized I could design digitally. I was like, 'Okay, I think I have the foundations here of something that could really be something,'" Zella told CBS News Colorado. 

That's when she quit her day job. Zella developed a design and manufacturing process that includes playing with metals and shapes, taking her ideas into design software, getting a computer aided design (CAD) file started, tweaking the design, then a mold is cast, and the piece can be produced at scale. 

"I knew I wanted to wholesale. I wanted to get an order for 50 and jump up and down, not cry and go sit on a bench," Zella explained.

She launched her jewelry brand in April of 2023. 

"The brand is called LÚDERE which means play. I built it around the idea of living life as play," Zella said. 

By November of 2023, she was signing a contract to be a part of the Holiday Market at Winter Wanderland in Cherry Creek North. It was her first real public showing. 

"It really took me from what was a very small business, obviously I had just launched it, to giving me a) the customers, the cash flow, the everything I needed to propel myself forward into this year," Zella explained.

This year, she's working in a small shared-work space on Tennyson Street. She's launched new piece and been commissioned for some custom designs. Also, she has an even bigger presence at the Holiday Market. 

"I'm so determined to make it work," she explained. 

Next year, she hopes to open a brick-and-mortar store and possibly contract with a larger retailer. Zella is living her lúdere.

LINK: Holiday Market at Winter Wanderland

The Holiday Market is open through December 24, 2024 as part of Winter Wanderland in Cherry Creek North.