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Erica Major’s jewelry encapsulates some of the moment’s most coveted shapes and textures, from rattan to fringe to plant leaf designs


Erica Major’s world is full of color. You can see it in her jewelry—purples and golds, reds and blues, pinks and greens.

She specializes in handmade earrings, necklaces and bracelets inspired by nature and her own vibrant style.

Her earrings’ bright tassels and beads sway in the breeze; their gold accents glitter in the hot Louisiana sun. Major herself is just as warm, a friendly Port Allen designer and mother to Myles, 5, and Mia, 19 months. Her business, Mia Rose Designs, is named for her sweet baby girl, whose birth motivated her to live out her jewelry dreams.

“When I had Mia Rose, my second baby, she kind of gave me a whole new outlook,” Major, 32, says. “I have to teach her to be confident, and to be independent, and to know that if she puts her mind to something, it can be done.”

She had always dreamed of running a jewelry business, and several months after her daughter was born, she decided to put her mind to it.

“I sat down with my husband like, ‘This is what I want to do,’” she says.

They planned out the business, and now, it’s grown bigger than she ever imagined. She primarily markets her jewelry on Facebook and Instagram, where followers can’t get enough of her statement-making pieces. She sometimes pops up at the White Star Market’s monthly farmers market or her neighborhood fruit stand.

Now, she sells about 50 to 75 pieces per month.

She is constantly experimenting with different shapes and materials. Some of her earrings take the form of flowers—she loves flowers. Some of her necklaces are adorned with crescent moons. Others look like shiny, colorful marbled monstera leaves. She even sells rattan pieces. And her big purple and gold tassel earrings are LSU game-day perfection.

When customers leave reviews and send pictures of themselves wearing her pieces, it makes the exhaustive work of creating jewelry and filling orders so worth it.

“I really like to do custom orders. It’s all about what people are wanting; it’s all about what’s going to make them feel good and feel confident and pretty,” she says.

Major picks up supplies, from pendants to beads, and contemplates her designs at the end of the day. After her kids go to bed, she sits, stringing beads. It helps her get the day off her chest, she says, and to not think of anything but her work.

She always sends the designs to her mother, who’ll reply, “Everything you make is so cute—I need one of those!”

Her mother isn’t her only family member who supports her jewelry making. Anytime a bead drops on the floor, Myles comes running to help, asking, “Did you drop one?”

“I call him my bead boy,” she says. “I never have to bend down to pick anything up.”

Myles even spotted one of his teachers at school and asked if she was wearing a pair of his mom’s earrings. (She was.)

Through it all, from designing and selling her jewelry to coaching her son’s T-ball team, everything comes back to raising her children.

“I’m just doing the mom thing,” Major says. “That’s what I love to do. That was my sole purpose for doing this whole business to begin with—for them.” Find her on Instagram (@miarose_designs)


This article was originally published in the September 2019 issue of 225 Magazine.