I began my Etsy shop and my business in June of 2007, after graduating from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City and finding myself searching for a job. I had just moved in to my very first, very expensive and very tiny apartment in Brooklyn. It was also very loud because there happened to be an elevated subway train that passed right across the street from my window. But it was mine, and I loved it.
I started my shop with some of my now famous House Rings that I had leftover from an unsuccessful show I did. I priced them way too low, because I was just feeling like no one wanted them. They were too weird, and no one would buy them. While I had gotten lots of compliments on them, I had not sold more than one at that point. But I needed money to get my life started in my new city.
They sold immediately. People were begging for more! I got so many compliments and conversations and all of a sudden I was custom making more and more rings. Even some Etsy admins were buying them.
Then the questions came. Do you make necklaces? Earrings? And people started sending me stories, telling me why they were buying them, who they were going to give them to and why they were so touched by them. I was so inspired by my new found customers and collectors to keep creating more pieces that were just as special to them as they were to me.

This was five apartments ago. (Yes, that is how we gauge time in New York City.) Now my studio runs much more smoothly, in its own little room in my apartment that I share with my husband and daughter, instead of in the corner of the only room in my apartment, with the J train flying by the window.