 This will be my last event of 2024! Join me and 12 other artists at an open studio event on December 7th & 8th! I will be teaching a wax carving class on the 8th (Sunday), but I will be slinging jewelry goodness on December 7th (Saturday). We will have great music and light refreshments, and this is the perfect opportunity to start your art collection or introduce your partner or children to local artists and their vibrant work. For a full list of participating artists, check out the flyer below! 
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 Do you want to learn how to carve wax, which can then be cast into actual jewelry? Take a class with me! This is a 2-day taster workshop, where we will go over basic wax carving techniques and how to clean and finish your casting. No experience required, and students will go home with 1-2 pieces of finished jewelry! Date November 11 and 24, 2024 Time 10am - 4pm Location 145 Hooper St., San Francisco, CA 94107 Tickets $295  I've been teaching a production jewelry class at the California College of the Arts (CCA), and I'm excited to share not just what I've been cooking, but what my brilliant students have been up to! Enter campus from either 145 Hooper Street or 1111 8th Street in San Francisco, and you will be greeted by 200 artists, designers, and makers slinging their original work. Event CCA Arts & Crafts Fair Date Saturday, November 16th, 2024 Time 11am - 4pm Location 1111 8th St., San Francisco Tickets Free!  You will also encounter:
 Come find unique, one of a kind gifts like jewelry, prints, glass, ceramics, clothing, and more for loved ones or yourself! This is a great opportunity to support craftspersons, designers, and local artisans. We need your help to support our local community vendors and businesses.  Thank you to everyone to came to the opening reception for my two-person show! I was thrilled to see my past and current students, fellow jewelers, and clients who have supported me through the years. If you couldn't make it to the opening, don't worry! The show will be up through September 30th, and I asked the gallery for a few gorgeous photos to share with you. For this new body of work, I worked with organic rosecut gemstones and reclaimed diamond melee. You might ask, what is diamond melee? In jewelry, melee is used to describe stones that are 0.2 carats or less in weight, which simply means very small stones. The diamond melee I use are reclaimed, which means they were retrieved from old jewelry. The gemstone dealer I work with purchases estate jewelry or simply jewelry people no longer want, and he salvages the gemstones so they can be worked into new designs. This means that no new diamonds were extracted from the earth through mining. This opal cluster pendant has found its new home already, but the green tourmaline pendant on the right is still waiting for its new owner! Shibumi Gallery is located at 1816 Fourth Street, Berkeley, CA 94710 and is open 12 noon to 5:30pm every day of the week, except Tuesday. I'm thrilled to announce that I'm having a two-person show at Shibumi Gallery in Berkeley, California! For this exhibition, my friend Kate Eickelberg and I will be showcasing new work, and the opening reception is this coming Saturday, September 7th, from 3:30pm to 5:30pm. Light refreshments and drinks will be served. If you're looking for something to do this weekend, stop by Shibumi Gallery on 4th Street and say hi! Both Kate and I would love to see you there.   I’m excited to share that I’ll be launching a holiday sale of ready-to-ship jewelry this coming Small Business Saturday! My newsletter readers will have early access on Saturday and Sunday, and then the sale will be available to everyone. If you’re not subscribed yet, now’s the time to either sign up yourself or nudge your partner in the right direction. Simply click the button below to sign up.  This might be odd coming from a small business, but I encourage you to take time to think through your purchases this holiday season. Every Black Friday, we are flooded with deep discounts and sales urging us to buy, which lead to impulse purchases that we regret later on. Often, these purchases will be used once or twice before finding their way to a landfill. I used to be an impulse shopper who looked forward to the thrill of Black Friday, but as I’ve grown older and learned how to be a conscious consumer, my goal has shifted to buying fewer but better quality things.  We also try to be conscious makers in the studio, where we translate emotions into jewelry. Each piece is thoughtfully designed and handcrafted, which means it will last several lifetimes. We also use recycled gold and reclaimed diamonds whenever possible. If you’re looking for a more sustainable gift for yourself or a loved one, please consider shopping from a small or local business. And thank you for being a thoughtful human.  I've been keeping this under wraps until everything was confirmed, and now I'm so excited to say I'm officially an adjunct professor at the California College of the Arts, my alma mater! Over the past couple of years, I've slowly come to the realization that I really enjoy teaching and breaking down complex techniques or concepts into smaller, digestible units. Running my own business has also provided ample practice in teaching, since I've trained and guided several assistants. My first class, which starts today, is Senior Project. During this class, I guide students in preparing for and executing their senior exhibition. It can be an intense class, with emotions running high as students distill four years of education into a cohesive body of work that will be presented to the wider public. In this final semester, students practically live in their studios, sometimes things break, a million things can go wrong, and yes, tears are shed. But I wouldn't miss it for the world. P.S. The work shown above is a new piece of art jewelry that I recently carved. Made from maple wood, walnut wood, and silk thread, it's titled Siblings 05 and explores the complicated push and pull we have with family.  Tomorrow, I will be at my one and only in-person event this year, the CCA Holiday Fair and Homecoming celebration!  CCA HOLIDAY FAIR + HOMECOMING
Do you love a good petting zoo? What about food trucks galore and handmade goods from local artists and markers? If you do, don't miss out on CCA's Holiday Craft Fair and Homecoming event! We're throwing a street party on Hooper Street, so join us for a day of festivities, open studios, demos, and holiday shopping. Date November 19th, Saturday Time 11am - 4pm Location 1111 8th St., San Francisco, CA 94107 Tickets Free and open to the public  Hello friend! October is coming to an end, which means that New York City Jewelry Week (NYCJW) is happening soon! Now in its third year, NYCJW takes place in the Big Apple every November.
The weeklong event, founded by curator Bella Neyman and marketing consultant JB Jones, celebrates jewelry in all its different forms through a wide variety of in-person and virtual programming. Programs include exhibitions, shopping experiences, first look at new designers, and lectures on everything jewelry. One of NYCJW’s initiatives is Here We Are (HWA), which “highlights creators, and builds industry awareness around issues of diversity, inclusion, equity, representation, and allyship.” I was fortunate enough to be selected as a designer for the HWA x 1stDibs Marketplace.  This means that starting now, you can shop and collect my work on 1stDibs.com, a luxury e-commerce platform that connects collectors with well-designed jewelry, fine art, furniture, and fashion.  Liquid Gold Fine Collection in recycled 14k gold when possible, with a smattering of melee diamonds. For the next few months, I will be adding more one-of-a-kind jewelry to my 1stDibs page, so don’t forget to visit and peruse the jewelry goodness!  The Lumen Curve Necklace and Earrings in Medium. Hand-carved rock crystal with recycled 14k gold when possible. Hello friend! It gives me such pleasure to finally announce the launch of not one, but two capsule collections! Both the Lumen Collection and the Lucid Collection will be revealed on November 5th, 9 am PST, in my online shop. Subscribers to my newsletter will receive a special sale code the morning of the big reveal. If you haven’t signed up for my newsletter, now’s the time! Sign up by November 4th, 11:59 pm PST to receive the special code. To sign up for my newsletter, simply click on the button below. Last year, I took a few lapidary classes with the help of a scholarship from the Women’s Jewelry Association. Then I invested in equipment such as a trim saw and cabbing machine for stonecutting. For months, I immersed myself in cutting stone rough, grinding, polishing, and drilling. The fruition of my efforts are these two collections, which are made from hand-carved rock crystal and paired with recycled 14k gold when possible.
The Lumen Collection was actually ready to go in June, but I had to deal with health issues (hello tendonitis, back pain, and adult food allergy!), so everything had to be put on the back burner while I focused on getting better. The Lumen Collection with its soft curves finds inspiration in cold mornings and the luminous light of a new day. On the other hand, the Lucid Collection is a reinterpretation of the acrylic jewelry I used to make in precious materials. This capsule collection pairs icy, faceted rock crystal with traceable brilliant diamonds. The gold bar piercing through reflects moments of clarity in your life, when you know exactly what to do, and you make singular decision that will change the course of your life.
Thank you for patiently waiting as I navigate the challenges and daily life of being a small business owner and independent jewelry designer and maker. I’m glad to have you along on this journey. Don't forget to sign up for my newsletter by November 4th!  Lumen Drop Pendant. Hand-carved rock crystal and recycled 14k gold when possible. |
