“Neighbors start business together”

Posted: 02 Mar 2011 07:37 PM PST

Posted: Wednesday, March 2, 2011 9:17 pm | Updated: 10:10 pm, Wed Mar 2, 2011.

A pair of local residents is looking to fill an little-served niche in the jewelry market: Stores that cater to children.

Dawn Backun and Deepa Mireles have launched an exclusively children's jewelry line called Dawn & Deepa on Feb. 22.

The women live next to each other in Grand Lakes with children of their own.

One day they were together looking for something to buy for Deepa's niece, wanting to buy some kind of jewelry. It dawned on them that children's jewelry isn't very prevalent.

"The more research we did the more we thought, 'wow, maybe this is something we could do," said Mireles.

In March 2010 Dawn and Deepa officially decided to launch their business.

The web site, www.dawndeepa.com, launched on Feb. 22, offering a variety of bangles, necklaces, rings and bracelets.

"We would like to expand to retailers, but we are really focused on building our brand right now," Mireles said.

All of the jewelry they offer at this time is sterling silver and handmade.

"We will be adding pieces every year just to keep the line fresh and we are actually going to launch a boys' line as well," Backun said.

"We really wanted to do something different and our market research showed that there is a demand for children's jewelry."

Mireles and Bakun aim to produce jewelry that offers a modern take on all of the classics.

"We are about offering good quality pieces that children can wear every day," Mireles said.

"Right now I think you'll find that some people think that children should only wear jewelry on special occasions, parties, weddings, but we wear jewelry everyday so children should as well. why not?" Bakun said.

"We are tying to shift the perception. We figure why shouldn't little kids wear jewelry," Mireles said.

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